


Deep Sea Sinning

by orphan_account



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Blood and Gore, Cannibalism, Fluff and Smut, M/M, Maybe fear play??, Mentions of Weird Fish Anatomy, Mildly Dubious Consent, Mpreg, No vore though I promise, Oviposition, Sirens, Tentacle Dick, i hope no one reads this, male vagina, mentions of cannibalism, porn that grew plot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-04
Updated: 2018-04-01
Packaged: 2018-09-22 01:46:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 51,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9576500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: When it came to attracting mates, Lance's fins had no rival.However, Lance himself did, and he was currently trying to beat the siren in his own game.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Hunting You Until You're Mine](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8978170) by [AbandonedLibrary](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AbandonedLibrary/pseuds/AbandonedLibrary). 



> Inspired by the work of the wonderful [KnightNuraStar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KnightNuraStar/profile). I hope you're alright with me posting this. I will definitely take it down if you would like me to.

Lance flared out his fins and the spines on the back of his tail, letting the semi-opaque scales flash in the waning sunlight.  The bright vivid blue, black, and white meshed with the surrounding water well, and his tail sparkled as he spread it out as far and as big as it could go.  
  
When it came to attracting mates, Lance's fins had no rival.  
  
However, Lance himself did, and he was currently trying to beat the siren in his own game.  
  
Keith had spent all morning preening and shining his tail, combing his wavy black hair and cleaning his sleek red and purple tail until it shone.  Clearly he was getting ready for a hunt, as sirens fed on primarily human and merpeople flesh, and hunting for sirens resembled mating displays too closely for Lance's liking.  
  
So instead, Lance puffed out his heavy fins to be as full and beautiful as can be, and waited for Keith to notice, and have his good mood soured since he was so clearly outclassed.  Or like, notice and swoon.  Whichever was good, but Lance wanted the swooning a little more.  
  
Normally, seeing as sirens ate merpeople for lunch, Lance should be terrified of Keith.  But Lance was a lionfish; a fierce fighter with poisonous spines jutting out from his large fanciful fins, and he knew he was one of the most aggressive and deadliest types of merpeople out there.  Keith wouldn't be able to get a bite out of him without getting torn to shreds.  
  
"Stop it, Lance!" Keith finally snapped.  "I'm busy!"  
  
"Going off to eat some poor, unsuspecting victim?" Lance winked, stopping absolutely nothing.  
  
"Stop showing off!  I get that you're prettier than me!" Keith growled, his red fins tucked behind his hands.  
  
"What—I was just warming up in the sun!" faked Lance, who was very aware of what he was doing.  
  
"No, you're pulling your whole mating display routine on me," Keith snapped, "Would you like it if someone waved a fresh salmon right under your nose as you tried to hunt for literally anything else?"  
  
"I wasn't asking you to eat me!" Lance screeched.  
  
Keith rolled his eyes, "I didn't think you were, but I'm doing this stupid sprucing up routine because I'm hungry—and you happen to be food, Lance."  
  
"Excuse you?  This isn't me trying to show off that I'm a tasty buffet, Keith!  These are my full fins!  And these—" Lance huffed a couple bubbles out of his gills in frustration as he twirled around to show off the full magnificence of his full set of fins and spines, "are my mating fins!  You should be honored to even see this kind of thing!!"  
  
"Yeah, it's a real honor to be distracted all the fucking time," Keith rolled his eyes.  
  
Lance sulked, "It's not everyday a lionfish fans his mating fins around.  Each one has a unique pattern and color; they're said to be the most beautiful thing in the sea.  And they're wasted on you."  
  
"With you lurking around, it does happen everyday," Keith grumbled.  
  
"Excuse me?!" Lance shrieked, "This is the first time I've fully displayed them anywhere near you!"  
  
It wasn't, but Lance had his dignity to uphold.  
  
"No, you did it last week in front of that mermaid you liked," Keith snapped.  "Right before I seduced her and ate her."  
  
_Rest in pieces, Nyma_ , Lance thought.  He’d known she’d turn him down when he was flirting, mostly because she wasn’t stupid, and she knew he was only flirting with her in Keith’s vicinity so he could pretend he hadn’t been staring hopelessly at and pining for a siren.  
  
"That was for her, not for you!  It doesn't count!" Still, Lance protested, because if he admitted he wanted to mate with Keith, he'd be admitting a certain amount of willingness to risk being Keith's next meal, and Lance definitely didn't want to get eaten.  Fucked, sure, but not eaten.  
  
"For me...?" Keith asked, his voice going strange and his cheeks glowing just a little bit pink around the scales.  
  
"Not that this time was for you," Lance lied, because it definitely had been and they both knew it, and they both knew each other knew it, "Today's not the same as then!"  
  
Keith smirked, swimming closer, "Oh really?  And what makes today different?"  
  
"This wasn't a show for anybody!" Lance decided on, because technically it wasn't a show if he and Keith actually mated, and Lance was a bit overeager and a bit terrified at the thought of it.  He could die, his brain said, and it would be worth it, his dick replied.  
  
Keith swam in menacing circles around him, trapping him with his back against a large sea rock, porous and covered in barnacles.  It was in a nice spot of sun, so it almost felt romantic.  
  
"Are you sure it wasn't a show?  It looked like a mating display..." Keith smiled, all pretty like, "It looked like you wanted to show off for me.  Like you wanted to impress me with how beautiful you are.”

“Like I’d ever show off for someone with a haircut like yours,” He snapped, digging his hole even deeper, because they both knew he was full of shit.

“You did, Lance," Keith lingered on his voice, trilling the syllables under his breath, and even though he still looked predatory, these words were sweet, gentle, and his eyes were soft.  He was actually being honest.  “You’re beautiful.”  
  
"I did...?  I mean, I am?" He whispered.  Oh Triton, was this really happening?  Was Keith actually flirting with him?  

He’d wanted to flirt with Keith for years.  He’d been subtly trying to flirt with him for weeks even.  And today, his act that was partially out of jealousy had been the thing that had worked?  
  
His traitorous sense of logic supplied the wonderful thought, what if Keith was actually hunting him instead...?  
  
"Uhuh," Keith agreed shyly, coming close and lingering his hand over Lance’s bicep, like he wanted to touch but was unsure if he had permission.  "Worked like a charm.  I could spend all day sprucing up and I'd never look as good as you do.  We both know that."

Keith wasn’t shy, what the fuck?  Keith didn’t linger.  He was a siren, why would flirting be something new to him?  This had to be an act.  Keith's words now sounded decidedly predatory, and that's when Lance's brain overpowered his dick and told him to get the fuck out of there.   _Danger!  Danger!_ blared loud and clear in his head.  
  
"Thanks, I guess!" Lance squeaked, trying to turn to he could swim away, but Keith caught ahold of one of his big fins, stroking along its length, and unless Lance wanted to tear the fin off, he was stuck.  
  
With trapped prey in his hands, Keith's eyes grew hungry.  
  
"You can't eat me!" Lance yelled, "I can and will fight you!"  
  
"Who said anything about eating?" Keith trilled, his eyebrow furrowed and his lips puffing out into a pout, his gills flaring out, "I'm not stupid.  But since you spent all that time trying to show me 'the most beautiful sight in the sea' I can't let your efforts go to waste."  
  
Lance froze, keeping very still as the predator swam up his body, spreading his fins back out until they were displayed in full.  
  
So was his flirting actually flirting?  Lance had never felt more confused in his life.  Or turned on.  
  
"You're right, they are pretty," Keith cooed, fascinated as his hands lingered on Lance's fins, moving towards his tail oh so very slowly, his claws leaving a tingling sensation behind.  
  
He'd never been so close to a siren before, and having Keith touch him was both exhilarating and terrifying.  At any time, Keith could take a bite.  Lance could lose a fin, or worse, and while he was prepared to fight for his life, he'd really prefer not to.  He wanted this to be real.  He wanted Keith to want this as much as he did.  
  
Keith touched him with quiet reverence, his violet eyes gleaming with every shimmer of Lance's fins or his tail.  He looked mesmerized by the play of light reflecting off of them both, casting the quiet section of ocean they had found themselves in a myriad of reds, blues, and purples.    
  
The siren was so close that Lance could see every difference between them—how Keith's tail was long and whiplike, his fins almost sharp looking, all ten of them that jutted out from his tail.  How his claws and his teeth gleamed a threatening white, how every muscle in him was designed to either seduce or kill.  How he had no secondary gill slits like merpeople did, instead relying on only the two centered on his neck.  
  
They really were two different species, and Lance had been warned his whole life never to get this close to a siren.  A siren close enough to bite—to kill.  At close range like this, even lionfish couldn't guarantee they'd make it out alive.  
  
With that tail, Keith could outswim him any day.  And Lance had been the one who invited him up close and personal.  There was no way for Lance to run.  
  
"Why are you doing this, Keith?" Lance asked, his voice slipping into his lower register as he kept his eyes on the siren at all times.  
  
"I figure if you get what you want, you'll let me hunt in peace," Keith's hands rubbed up his tail, massaging his scales slowly and sensually.  "Don't be scared, I just want to make you feel good.  You know I'd never risk taking a bite out of a lionfish.  I'm not suicidal."  
  
"Would it be suicide?" Lance asked, jerking away, because not everything was brute strength and poison spines.  He pretended he didn't feel any disappointment in the fact that Keith only wanted to rid himself of an annoyance, for once second, but he couldn’t help it, he snapped, “I don’t want this if it’s just some kind of fucked up ruse!”  
  
"My scales aren't hard like yours," Keith said softly, his deep purple eyes meeting Lance’s.  He sounded honest, but could Lance even trust that?  The siren continued, "Your claws and teeth could rip me open, and even if I could outswim you, if you caught me?  You could disembowel me, easy.  You could rip all my fins off and break my neck.  Trust me, I wouldn’t risk doing anything with you if I didn’t want you."  
  
"I could hurt you?" Lance wondered aloud, and for some reason knowing Keith felt some degree of fear or at least, caution, made him feel far more confident.  It seemed impossible, like some kind of ultimatum that he’d never considered.

But he could.  And from what he could tell, Keith had implied he wanted Lance enough to risk it, just like Lance was.

"But you won't, and neither will I," Keith murmured, his eyes dark and sultry.  "Right, Lance?"

"I made it clear what I want," Lance flared his mating fins out wide, finally feeling confident enough to start grinning.  
  
Keith laid his hands on them, blatantly accepting the offer in terms that no sea dweller would misunderstand.  
  
Confident in his partner's willingness but not his comfort levels, Lance tentatively placed his arm on Keith's shoulder, testing to see how siren would retaliate.  Keith instead just turned his head to kiss at Lance's wrist, his razor sharp teeth kept safely tucked behind his lips as he smiled.  
  
Lance wrapped his tail fins around Keith's, forcing them closer together.  Keith's hands got the message, leaving Lance's fins to rake his nails up the lionfish's broad back.  
  
Lance urged his genital slit open, his dick wriggling out of his tail in one smooth motion.  Like all mermen, it was somewhat prehensile, kind of like a tentacle without suckers, and while it matched the rest of Lance's skin somewhat, the color would shimmer the blue hue of his tail in the light.  He had tough ridges of flesh on both sides of it, the little spikes flaring outwards with arousal.  
  
To his delight, Keith's slit also opened, and while his dick was a lot shorter, it was also the cutest shade of pink and just as thick.  And, Lance realized with glee, it thrashed around quickly, eager to meet Lance's.  Apparently Keith really had been affected by Lance’s showing off.  
  
The first touch between their dicks came when Lance's reached out through the water, blindly groping, and Keith's followed the rest of the way, their tips swirling around each other before the rest of the shafts followed suit and locked them together, dragging their owners along with them.  Keith's face flooded red as he buried his head in Lance's shoulder, moaning at the soft pleasure of those tentative touches.  
  
Lance took the reins from there, pulling Keith closer and rubbing their dicks together against their stomachs, moaning in pleasure as they twisted around each other and squeezed in ways that had them both breathless with pleasure.  The ridges on the sides of his dick caught on Keith's and tugged, and Lance struggled to keep from coming just from that alone.  He whined, pulling Keith up for a kiss.  
  
Keith met his lips with ease, still embarrassed and red in the face, even as his dick squeezed Lance's so hard that he saw stars.   It might not have been as long as Lance's, but Keith's dick had some serious muscle to it.  Lance did his best to keep up the pace he'd set, but every sensation felt so good that the pleasure was overwhelming that he kept slipping into something slower and more gentle.  And that started to feel more like they were trying to become mates instead of two horny seadwellers fucking around, and Lance didn't know how to feel about it.  
  
"Do you want to fuck me?" Keith asked breathlessly, pulling back a little.  
  
Lance murmured out a yes, trying to pull him closer again.  
  
"Then give me a second, Lance," Keith huffed and pushed him back, separating them fully.  The loss of Keith's dick against his was practically criminal; especially when he had been so close to coming.  
  
Instead Lance had to watch as the siren coaxed open a different genital slit, his fingers dipping into it and stretching it open.  It was just below his dick, and it took a second to realize that Keith had a fully developed cunt, unlike Lance, who only had a partial one in the event he decided to change genders.  
  
"Why is yours developed?" Lance found himself asking.  "You're male...?"  
  
Keith moaned as his fingers slipped in and stretched it wide, his chest heaving as his gills desperately sucked in water.  With only two instead of Lance's four, he was having trouble keeping up with Lance's pace.  Panting slightly, he replied, "I lure in prey through mating with them, Lance.  All sirens do.  I don't discriminate food by gender, so I generally need both sets."  
  
"Makes sense," Lance agreed, impatiently capturing the siren back into his arms and entwining their dicks once again.  For some reason his motor-mouth wouldn’t stop, and Keith wasn’t even still kissing him to make it stop, so it kept going.  "I don't check if I'm eating male or female fish.  Unless it's mating season, because then the females are full of-- _Ahhh!_ \--delicious eggs."  
  
"Pfft," Keith laughed, his face red, "Mermaids are good when they're full of eggs too, but I don't discriminate.  Mermen are also very tasty, and they're stupider when they're horny."  
  
Right.   _Mermen._  Mermen just like _Lance_ , who was stupidly horny enough to bring himself within fucking eating range.  
  
Lance abruptly remembered that sirens did very much what Keith had just did to him to secure prey, tricking them with what they wanted to hear until their guards were down enough that even if they could protect themselves, they didn’t.  That in mind, he slowly tried to wiggle his dick out of Keith's grip only to find that he couldn't.  The motion had Keith frowning as he tightened his dick's hold on Lance, rutting against him as Lance tried to suck in enough water to keep himself from going dizzy with terror and pleasure.  
  
"Shh, don't freak out," Keith murmured against Lance's lips, "We were having a good time, Lance.  You're not in any danger."  
  
Keith's dick rubbed tight, sweet patterns into Lance's, and despite his fear, Lance melted a little, shuddering as he squeezed and rubbed back with his own.  It felt so good, like warmth shot straight into his veins, and Lance was addicted.  He never wanted the feeling to stop.

This was probably going to get him killed.  His pleasure-flooded mind was starting to think that might not be so bad.  
  
"There we go," Keith said sweetly, wrapping his arms around Lance's waist, "All better... see?  You're safe."  
  
Lance keened, leaning his weight on Keith as he was brought close to coming once again.  Keith supported him easily, curling his tail under them so they could rest on it.  
  
"I want to fuck you," Lance gasped, "Please."  
  
If he was going to have to fight for his life once the siren reevaluated his stance on eating him, he'd at least better be as deep in Keith's cunt as he could physically go first.  
  
Keith unwrapped his dick from Lance's, sliding up to cradle Lance's head in his collarbones.  Lance could feel his dick slip against the scales, seeking warm velvety flesh, until finally he found it and slipped inside, the warmth and heat inside of Keith overwhelming him with pleasure.  Lance moaned, squirming as deep inside that tight slick hole as he could go.  It wasn't as deep as a mermaid's, and it didn't curve as far up either, so it felt deliciously tight and rubbed him in the best way as he fucked in and out; his pace fast enough to keep the siren breathless and blissed out.  
  
"You're so big," Keith gasped, bucking up against him, trying to get Lance to rub up against a certain spot.  
  
Lance figured it out quickly, angling for the place that made Keith gasp and shudder, and the new angle had his ridges rubbing against the sides of Keith's cunt in the best way.  It only took two or three more slides into that tight wet heat for Lance to feel his need to orgasm overcome his willpower, and he let himself go.  It took embarrassingly little time for Lance's dick to shudder and gush his seed after that, spilling deep inside of Keith.  
  
Keith responded by tightening his hold on Lance, trilling softly and cooing.  "Lance."  
  
Lance kind of collapsed on him, exhausted, despite Keith not having come.  Sirens weren't easy to bring to orgasm, since a siren needed to be ready to kill and eat their prey after it's climax, so he wasn't surprised.  If Keith was going to eat him, now is when he'd bite, and knowing that, Lance didn't even bother retracting his dick back into his sheath, leaving it nestled deep inside Keith's warm cunt.  
  
It was a symbol of trust, and a symbol of willingness.  If Keith wanted to come, he was tired but more than ready to help make that happen.  
  
Keith made no move to bite him.  
  
Instead, Keith rolled his hips slowly, fucking Lance in and out of him as he cradled the merman in his arms.  He kept up a steady stream of babble, mostly just Lance's name, and Lance found himself hardening again, his dick starting to twitch and curl with every thrust inward.  His ridges caught on the internal texture of Keith's cunt, dragging a moan out of them both.  
  
"Lance, please," Keith begged, "Touch me."  
  
Lance found the energy to run his hand along Keith's dick, previously left to squirm uselessly against his own scales.  With something to finally wrap around, Keith sighed with pleasure, pressing himself closer and riding Lance harder, bucking up into Lance's light touches.  
  
Lance felt it as Keith came, his dick spilling hot cum into the water and his hole clenching around Lance's cock, urging him to come again as well.  Lance moaned as Keith swirled his hips, working his dick even through his own orgasm.  He took one good look at Keith's face, endlessly beautiful with pleasure, and followed suit, coming again inside of the siren.  
  
Keith let him remain inside for a brief moment, but Lance's cum made it almost too hard to maintain, and the siren must've felt so full since some of it was even slipping out at the sides.  Lance pulled himself back out, slow and hypersensitive as he dispersed the cum off of his dick, carefully folding himself back inside his genital slit.  
  
Keith hummed, relaxed and sated.  "See?  I told you I wouldn't bite."  
  
"Are you gonna...?" Lance asked, sleepily motioning to Keith's cum-coated hole.  He'd have to clean that out before sealing his slit, or risk infection.  
  
"Mhm," Keith confirmed, wiggling so that Lance rested easier on his lap and he had better access to his cunt, before digging his fingers in and washing out the cum.  He went in as deep as his fingers would allow, flushing it the best he could with Lance still draped over him.  
  
This went on for almost too long, before finally Keith gave up and just sealed his slit anyway.  
  
"I can't get it all out," Keith said, frustrated, "You're so much longer than my fingers.  On the bright side, there's not a high chance of getting sick when it's so deep in there.  On the flip side, we're lucky that my vagina is vestigial... and I don't even know if that'd even work.  No need to worry too much when we're different species, I guess."  
  
The thought of Keith laying eggs, their eggs, was actually kind of hot, but Lance wasn't going to say that to the siren's face.  
  
"I wasn't super concerned about that.  We always could've just eaten your eggs once you laid them," Lance yawned, his gills fluttering.  
  
"Oh right, merpeople actually do that," Keith wrinkled his nose, "How can you eat your own guppies?"  
  
Lance gave him a look, "They're not guppies until they hatch.  Before then, they're tasty.  It's akin to population control.  We don't need to have five hundred million of us floating around in the ocean."  
  
Keith made a face, "You're so lucky the thought of eating siren eggs is killing my appetite or I'd actually be feeling hungry right now from all this talk of food."  
  
"Right," Lance thought aloud, "Hunting.  You were going to go do that."  
  
"Yeah, I was, but you interrupted me," Keith playfully bit at his shoulder, licking his salt soaked skin.  Lance shuddered and leaned his head into the motion, nudging the siren away from his pulse point.  
  
Keith hissed, frustrated at the rejection, "How many times do I have to reassure you that I don't intend to eat you before you trust me?"  
  
He did trust him.  Lance just wasn't stupid either.  After mating, sirens wanted to eat.  If Keith had been hungry before, he'd only get hungrier, and snuggling with him in the sun would have to wait until Keith was happy and full of more than just Lance's cum.  
  
"Until you go eat something else," Lance supplied, yawning as he waved him off.  "I'll be napping right here.  This rock.  It's a good spot, lots of sun.  Come back soon so we can cuddle properly?"  
  
Keith smiled, and it was full of teeth.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please check the tags before continuing.
> 
> I didn't intend to post anything more of this au, but since I've written a lot for it, I might as well keep posting it... but please don't be offended if this doesn't go anywhere, really. It has no real plot, it's just me exploring this fucked up dynamic. Also there will eventually be more sex, just not in this chapter, and uh, way more weird shit going down in this awful bin of sin, so uh, please locate your nearest temple/church/synagogue/mosque/coven so you can enjoy forgiveness for your sins (my sins?), and if you can't find a place to bleach this shit out of your mind, I suggest you turn back now and enjoy living a life free of having read this piece of crap.

After that, Lance became even more fearless when it came to Keith.  Any other siren had him baring his claws and teeth with the intent to kill, but he was sweet on Keith.  Sweeter now than ever, really.   
  
They hadn't had sex again, but Lance had stolen glances and conversations when he wasn't busy with his duties as a merman in a family with 15 kids.  Even for merpeople, Lance's family was huge and it required a ridiculous amount of upkeep.  And with his mom egg-heavy again, the slack needed to be picked up.  Still, what free time Lance could claim was spent trying to be with Keith.  They talked more than ever, and it was amazing.   
  
Lance was much much sweeter on Keith than he'd ever been sweet on someone before in his life.   
  
Lance found himself cracking open oysters to collect pearls for the siren when finally he had to admit maybe he was being a little ridiculous.   
  
He drifted along a gentle current on his back, staring up at the ocean waves above him.  Lance sighed.  Just because they'd mated once didn't mean they were together.  Keith had brushed off his attempts to kiss him with a mix of amusement and annoyance, but he never outright left or told him to stop, so maybe he was interested—No, it shouldn't matter, he'd given no indication that things between them had changed whatsoever.  Having sex once wasn't the same as a real relationship, so why couldn't Lance just... let it go?  He'd had flings with plenty other merpeople but the second he has a siren, he's feeling clingy?  The one most likely to fucking eat him, and Lance wanted to woo him.   
  
He couldn't help it, he loved staring at Keith.  He was just so beautiful, and the ocean was his willing mistress as he glided through her vast expanse.  Nothing stopped him from doing what he wanted, and he was fearless, borderline reckless.  Sometimes the other sirens had to physically restrain him from fighting with other seadwellers, often mermen who had a bone to pick with him.     
  
Once, a tiger shark went after him when Lance was watching, and he saw the pure glee in Keith's eyes as he slaughtered it and ate it, his mind frenzied from the kill.  And after, the siren had merely floated over to where Lance was watching him and beckoned him closer, a clear invitation.     
  
But Lance knew better than to move near someone in a frenzy.  The mania would cause them to forget themselves, and Keith's promise not to eat him was already on thin ice as it was, with him being natural prey.  Keith had sulked and swam off when he'd refused to move, but Lance couldn't help but think about what could've happened if he did.   
  
Would they have kissed again?  ...Would they have fucked again?   
  
Lance grumbled, frustrated.  Why was he so hung up on Keith?  He'd never wanted to settle down before.  It had never been his _thing_.     
  
But suddenly he did want to be more than just meaningless sex to the siren.  He wanted them to be mates, wanted them to settle down and claim a good piece of ocean to call their own.  It would have to be away from the reef that Lance lived currently, because there was no way a whole city of merpeople would just let a siren live among them.  So it would have to be away from civilization, as it were, but not too far.  Preferably shallow water, tucked away in a cove or a reef, where they could curl up and sleep happily in the sun together.  Close to a beach or a dock, where humans frequented, if at all possible, but also close enough to a seadweller frequented current so Keith wouldn't worry about food.   
  
Lance already had found a place a while ago that he marked out for his own, but it'd been awhile since he'd been back to clear out the space of unwanted visitors, and if someone else claimed it in the meanwhile, he was unaware.  Maybe he'd visit, make sure it was still unclaimed space.  Lance was determined to mark his little home there, and he was more than ready to show it off to Keith and prove he could provide for him, if they were to be mates.   
  
Lance didn't know how he felt about Keith eating merpeople, however.  What if Keith ate one of his siblings?  Would he still be okay with that?   
  
Keith had eaten Nyma, and Lance had been trying to stick his dick in her.  It hadn't bugged him the first time he'd thought about it, but Nyma had had a life, a future, and Keith snuffed it out.  Morally, like every other merperson, Lance should find Keith atrocious.  Sirens killed and ate merpeople.   
  
But he just couldn't find Keith repulsive.  It wasn't hard wired in him, like it should be.   


* * *

Lance caught Keith napping in the sun, his tail swishing back and forth lazily.  The sun caught the purple sheen underneath Keith's vibrant red scales, and Lance couldn't help himself, he had to watch.   
  
The siren cracked an eye open at Lance's approach, likely smelling him and feeling the shift in water more than anything.  Keith's yawn turned into a smile, and he waved Lance over, much like he had last time with the tiger shark.   
  
Lance felt his heart pound in his chest, and he cautiously swam closer, approaching slowly.  What was Keith hoping for?  Just conversation?  More?  To eat him, finally, an easy willing meal?   
  
Keith commanded, "Nap with me."   
  
Lance grumbled.  Okay, no kissing or sex or whatever.  He could handle taking a nap with the siren.  He had a rare spot of free time today, his younger sister taking over guppy-watching duties.   
  
Lance curled up behind Keith, the big spoon because his spines made it difficult for him to be otherwise.  Pulling the siren to his chest, Lance cuddled him close, and the feeling of warm skin and warm scales against his was heaven.  The sunlight filtered through the water, heating it up slightly, and a current of hot water flowed through, keeping them both comfortably heated as they snuggled together.   
  
Keith yawned, pulling Lance's wrist over his middle and entwining their fingers.  "I like that you're not as scared of me anymore.  It's cute.  We're friends, right?"   
  
"Yeah..." Lance agreed with a lump in his throat, "We're friends."

* * *

Lance woke to a very cuddly siren in his arms, who'd thoroughly wrapped himself around Lance from head to tailfin.  Keith had rolled over sometime in the last hour or two, his nose pressed right into one of Lance's gills, his soft cheeks squished between Lance's neck and shoulder.   
  
Lance couldn't help it, he cooed and pulled Keith in closer.  He wanted to wake up with Keith wrapped around him like this every morning, sharing the tiny little bits of warmth that their bodies created.  It was a religious experience, to be so close to someone else.  He'd never had time to stare at Keith's almost translucent, pale eyelids, blue veins marking him up like marble.  He could see each and every flyaway hair, uncombed for likely a day or two but still dark as octopus ink and soft as a guppy-fin.   
  
It was weird, Keith always seemed bigger when he was awake.  Now it was all too clear that Lance dwarfed him in size, his tail, fins, and spines all making Keith feel like a skinny eel in his arms.   
  
A skinny eel that could bite, Lance reminded himself.  Small didn't mean that Keith wasn't dangerous.   
  
Lance pressed a kiss to the siren's ink dark hair, enjoying the privilege of Keith's slumber to shower him in a little extra affection.  The siren snorted at the light touch, bubbles of air tickling Lance's sensitive gills, and he let out a helpless giggle, squirming away.  "Noo _ooo, Keith—"_   
  
"Hm?" Keith clung tighter, "Wha... Lance?"   
  
"You tickled me!" Lance rubbed at the offended gills, pouting just a little.   
  
"Guppy," Keith smirked, purposely blowing bubbles at him.   
  
Lance tried to escape, but Keith had a killer grip on him, and Lance shrieked and giggled as the bubbles brushed his skin and got caught in his hair.   
  
"Help!" Lance pushed Keith's face away, still laughing contagiously, "Mercy!  Mercy!"   
  
Keith teasingly kissed at his neck, wrapping his tail around Lance as he play-pouted, "Oh, but you're so pretty when you beg."   
  
Lance squeezed him close, his heart pounding.  Could they really be heading in the direction he thought they might be?  Were they flirting again?   
  
"Uhuh," Lance whispered, his voice dropping into a lower register as he pleaded, "So can I please, _please_ kiss you?"   
  
Keith nodded, his purple eyes wide as Lance kissed him, sinking his palms into that black hair and tugging until Lance could just ravish the siren's mouth exactly how he wanted to.  He pressed forward, tasting the flavor of the other' mouth and immediately understanding why sirens enjoyed eating people—Lance would too if they all tasted as addicting as Keith's mouth was.  He wondered slightly if kissing was difficult for Keith, when all he must want to do is bite.

Still, Keith kissed back as good as he got, licking into Lance's mouth and grinding their tails together, his hands going up to run through Lance's hair and tugging.  He moaned when Lance caught his lip in his teeth and bit down, lightly and teasingly, and for a good moment, Lance thought they really were going to take this all the way.  
  
"You're so—oh shit," Keith abruptly dropped him like a hot rock, his fins flaring out aggressively at something he could see over Lance's shoulder.   
  
Lance turned, only to find a merman with a trident and business on his face.   
  
"Wait, who are—" Lance tried to say, keeping a hand on Keith's wrist even as the siren jerked back, probably aiming to escape into the deep sea trench behind them.   
  
"Drop the merman and no one gets hurt," the man growled, whirling the trident into stabbing position, "Siren."   
  
Keith hissed, his gills flaring out and his teeth making a sharp, very sharp appearance.  Lance had not been kissing those teeth earlier.  These were his teeth for killing.

The tension had risen way farther than Lance would like, and this merman was probably someone on guard around the reef.  If he was really just a posted guard, then this could just be a misunderstanding.  After all, sirens could definitely be dangerous, and he didn't really know that Lance and Keith were actually friendly; that Lance wasn't one of Keith's next meals.  Quickly trying to diffuse the tension, he laughed almost obnoxiously loudly, and kept a great big smile plastered on his face.   
  
"Wait, no, you've got it all wrong," Lance said as he put himself between them, holding out his arms, "He wasn't about to hurt me."   
  
"That's what every siren wants you to think, kid," The merman trilled, jabbing forward threateningly with his trident so it rested right in the soft part of Keith's gills.  "Let the merman go, and I won't poke you full of holes."   
  
The siren and the merman stared at each other for a second, and Lance could've sworn that even with his gills on his neck and the gills on his ribs, he couldn't breathe out of either until the tension finally snapped, and Keith was the one who backed down, his violet eyes dark and his hackles still raised.  Keith broke out of Lance's grip, swimming back with an indecipherable look on his face.  "Lance, I'm leaving.  Don't fucking follow me."

"W-what, no--Keith!" Lance protested, but it was too late.  Keith was already diving down out of range into the trench at speeds that Lance would never be able to match, and there was no catching up to a siren when they wanted to flee.  Keith was the fastest siren that Lance had ever even met.  Even if the merman sent out a patrol to find him and kill him, the hunting party would never catch him.  So at least Keith was safe, for now, but it did nothing to ease Lance's worries, and now he was alone with the trident welding asshole.   
  
Lance slumped, trying to tamp down his anger back into mere frustration, "It was just a couple of kids joking around.  What's your damage?!"   
  
"I saved your life.  You were about three seconds from being siren chow, fry," the merman gave him an incredulous look.   
  
"First, I'm not fry!  Second, Keith wasn't going to eat me!  We've known each other for years!" Lance snapped.  Or more like, Lance had been spying on and admiring Keith for years, until recently when they'd actually met.  Still counted.   
  
The merman shoved him roughly away from the rock where he and Keith had comfortably been napping less than 10 minutes ago, back towards their reef.  "If you knew what was best for you, you'd leave this place and never return.  The siren shoal lives near here, and they play games with your head, trick you until you think they're harmless, and then they turn on you and suck the flesh off your bones.  Your so-called friend is a dangerous criminal waiting for your guard to drop."   
  
Lance growled, pushing back, "No!  You're wrong.  You can't tell me he's dangerous because guess what?   _I'm far more dangerous, and now you've pissed me off_."   


The merman swam back in alarm as Lance flared his spines, his fins puffing up as he hissed with his teeth fully extended.  It was a clear message; Lance had no problem fighting one of his own.  There was a reason Keith didn't scare him nearly as much as he should've, and it was because he was one of the best fighters that lived in their reef.  No one had matched him for sheer power, and even if he was without a trident in hand like his opponent, Lance was never truly weaponless.

Poison collected in his spines, glowing a fierce blue as he watched, waiting to see if the merman would back off, or if he really did want to fight.

The merman lowered his trident, "Brainless freak! I saved you from being eaten alive; this isn't how you thank someone for that."

Lance hissed, puffing up out of aggression, "I wasn't in any danger.  Instead, you threatened me and you insulted me.  We both know the laws of these waters.  I can kill you if I have just cause."

The merman backed off, snarling as he swam off, "That siren will kill you someday.  And you'll deserve it."

Lance deflated, his fins relaxing and his spines laying back down flat against his back.  That merman was probably right; Keith could kill him any day now and Lance would probably thank him for it so long as he told him that he loved him beforehand.  Lance sucked in a breath through his gills, wiping at his nose as he tried not to think about it.  They really did feel doomed; impossible to stay together.  So much for living together, so much for dating, so much for anything.

_"Don't fucking follow me,"_ Keith had said.

All Lance wanted to do was swim after him and kiss that smile again.

* * *

Keith snuck up on Lance, quickly tugging him aside and behind a rock, his voice dropping to a whisper so as not to alarm Lance's brothers, who had all formed a big hunting party that Lance was definitely meant to be part of.  
  
"We need to talk!" Keith hissed.  
  
"If one of my brothers saw you—!" Lance panicked, gathering Keith close as if that would protect him from being seen.  
 _  
_ _"Lance!"_ Keith trilled, pushing away to look him in the eye.  "Feel my tail!"  
  
Lance stroked a line up Keith's beautiful red scales, feeling for whatever Keith wanted to show him.  Once he got close to Keith's lower genital slit, he found it.    
  
 _Eggs._  
  
At least two.  They weren't in Keith's stomach, like how mermaids carried theirs, instead in a pouch in Keith's tail, and they had swollen up enough that they felt like two marbles, if not more, were under his scales.  Lance wondered at the feel of them, still kind of hard but growing soft and big inside of Keith.  He could kind of roll them around, sending them closer or farther from the surface of Keith's scales depending on how he pushed.  The thought of them twisted up his insides in a good way; Keith was carrying his eggs, no one else's.  
  
"See why we need to talk?" Keith asked.  
  
"Oh yeah, some discussion might need to happen," Lance mumbled, his eyes wide.  "Let me go tell my brothers where I am, okay?  I'll be right back."  
  
Keith crossed his arms, refusing to meet Lance's eyes.  He looked reluctant to let Lance go, but even more reluctant to admit he wanted him to stay.  
  
"I'll be back faster than you can count to a hundred," Lance promised, kissing Keith on the cheek.  For once, he didn't pull away.  
  
Lance didn't like leaving Keith either, but he had to go make excuses for why he was skipping out on hunting.  Especially because Lance loved hunting—he was so good at it that he only went in groups like his brothers when he wanted to show off.  So essentially he had to lie to his eldest brother in order to make it believable, and he ended up telling him he didn't feel like hunting today because he felt a bit sick, might've eaten a bad clam or something.  With a few jibs, his brothers let him do his own thing for the day, and he was free until the moon rose and his mother would start worrying if she hadn't seen him all day.  
  
Lance returned to the siren with a swish, holding out his arm for Keith to take so he could escort them both into neutral waters.  
  
Keith took it hesitantly.  "You're not freaking out as badly as I am."  
  
"I don't have fertilized eggs in my body either," Lance replied, dragging them both out to the rock that they'd been on weeks ago.  It was luckily not all that far away, but close enough in no mer's land that he didn't have to worry about Keith being attacked on the spot.  He did however make sure that his fins shielded them from the current that most merpeople travelled on though, hunkering them both down behind the rock's edge.  
  
Keith settled on the sand underneath, the red of his scales positively glorious in the sun.  "What should I do about them?  Do you want to keep them?  Do you want to eat them or just like, leave them somewhere?"  
  
Lance shook his head, "I need to know how you feel about it first."  
  
"I don't know!" Keith grumbled, "I've never laid any eggs before.  No one else's ever managed to fertilize them.  I thought my uterus didn't even fucking work!"  
  
"Wait, what?" Lance asked.  "But then how is this your first time?"  
  
"If I had to guess, I mean... You're really long, okay?  And _big_ , and I knew you really did it for me, because you're really fucking pretty but you could fuck me up, and I have a thing for that!  And when I'm really aroused, it just kind of makes things loosen up down there... and you came in me twice," Keith blushed, his brow furrowing angrily, "Male sirens are just, we're not nearly as fertile as female sirens when it comes to our eggs, sometimes we're flat out sterile.  I thought I was the latter because, well, fuck, this has never happened before!  And I literally have sex to eat!"

"So no one else's ever managed to get you aroused enough like I did, and that's what needed to happen to fertilize your eggs," Lance repeated numbly.

"Basically!"  
  
"Alright, so it definitely happened," Lance agreed.   
  
Keith growled in frustration, tears welling up in his eyes, only discernible in the ocean light by how they shimmered as they dissolved; "I didn't even think it was possible since we're different species!  Shouldn't genetics prevent cross breeds like that?  I don't know what's happening to my body, and I don't know what to do!"   
  
Lance pulled the siren into his arms, cooing gently at him until he calmed down.  He hadn't even known Keith could be vulnerable like this; his mind still too caught up on the idea of him as this confident predator, endlessly self sufficient and needing no one else.  But of course, no matter what else he was, Keith was a seadweller, and that meant feelings and emotions, and Lance had been stupid to forget that.   
  
He only found Keith's soft, scared side to be another reason that he was perfect, and Lance knew as soon as Keith sucked in large breaths through his gills, burying his head in Lance's shoulder, that he wanted to make Keith his mate.  This wasn't passing fancy.  He wanted to settle down, he wanted to protect, he wanted so _much._ __   
  
Most of all, he wanted to give.  He wanted Keith to have everything in the world he could provide.  Lance was so overwhelmingly in love.   
  
Lance wished he could answer Keith's questions, but he had no clue either.  Merpeople's knowledge of sirens was poor to begin with; what more did you need to know about the things that preyed on you than how to avoid them?  Lance knew a million ways to hide from or hurt or trap a siren, but he knew nothing about how they reproduced.   
  
He did know something about how to comfort a mate, however.   
  
Lance combed through Keith's hair with his fingers with one hand, doing his best to scoop up all of the siren's long tail into the circle of his own.  Keith just barely fit in the circle, and Lance flared his fins and his spines out as wide as they could go to hide him from view.  Sirens had few predators, unlike merpeople, but he figured Keith would appreciate the safety of being hidden in the curl of Lance's body besides.   
  
Keith pressed close, his head still tucked into Lance's shoulder with his arms around his neck.  Lance had to close that gill slit to avoid sucking in Keith's hair on accident.   
  
"Do you have anyone you can ask?" Lance suggested quietly, "Someone in your shoal should know what it's like to carry eggs."   
  
"...I'd have to tell them though," Keith swallowed down a gulp of sea water, looking frankly terrified.  "When someone in the shoal admits to weakness, we kill them before they weigh us down.  Like this, I'm a burden.  If I told them, they'd kill me."   
  
"I'd kill them first," Lance hissed.  Keith was carrying his eggs right now, and if one of the other sirens attacked him for it, he'd rip them to shreds.   
  
Keith shook his head, his dark hair swirling in lovely patterns in the water.   "Lance, you could kill one siren, maybe?  But protecting me from the whole shoal would kill _you._ "   
  
"Okay, ouch to my ego, first," Lance rubbed soothing circles into Keith's back, irritated with the circumstances but calm, somehow, because he knew his words were true.  He'd kill any siren that tried to hurt Keith.  He knew he could, too.  "Second, I know lionfish fighters who've gone up against 4 sirens and survived to tell the tale.  And I might be more of a lover than a fighter, but if your shoal tried to kill you, I'd destroy everyone who so much as touched you, even if it killed me."   
  
"I'm not convinced, but I know you mean it."   
  
"Of course I mean it," Lance stroked over the eggs in Keith's tail,  pulling the siren closer, "I've killed other merpeople in combat before.  I've never gone up against more than one siren, but I would go up against a million if I had to."   
  
"Cute," Keith told him, the praise falling off his lips with only a little belittlement.   
  
"Fuck yeah I am," Lance snorted, "I'm the best guppy daddy you could've asked for."   
  
"I could've asked for something more," Keith said, going straight for the one thing most likely to kill Lance dead.  "I could've asked for my mate."   
  
"...you just have to ask, and I'm yours," Lance said, his heart in his throat.   
  
"Are you sure you're... don't just offer that kind of thing out of pity!" Keith bit his lower lip, his eye brows furrowed, "You can't, Lance, not because I'm carrying your eggs or because I'm scared of facing my shoal."   
  
"I wanted you since long before we first spoke, but recently those feelings developed into more," Lance admitted quietly, "Is it so bad that I want more than just sex from you?"   
  
"I don't know how to give you anything else," Keith clenched his fists, staring at the ocean floor, "I want to, but I don't know how.  Sirens mate for life, Lance.  I want you but it's so confusing, and... I don't want to make any dumb decisions because I'm scared."   
  
Lance held him close, nosing along Keith's soft gills, "You don't have to decide now."   
  
_I'll wait,_ he didn't add, but Lance knew it was true.  He'd never want another like this.   



	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think it's hilarious that half the comments on this fic are "I don't know what this is or why I'm reading it but it's kind of cool??" and the other are "you can't judge me for reading this and enjoying it bc you WROTE IT"
> 
> Indeed I did write it. I am posting this anonymously on purpose, because I too am ashamed. It's okay. There's a reason I put "sin" in the title and its because we all should be ashamed of how our culture has brought us to this point of depravity. 
> 
> It's a fun depravity though. I have no intentions of stopping.

Lance slumped his head on his mother’s lap, enjoying the feeling of her fingers in his hair and scales against his cheek.  “You’re not pissed?” He asked for the millionth time.

She tugged on his ear sharply.  “I told you, no.  You’ve had your tail twisted into knots over that siren for years.  I'm not surprised you went for it.”

Lance groaned, “It's wrong though, isn't it?”

His mother sighed, “...Are sharks evil?”

“Well, uh…” Lance wanted to immediately say yes.  It was something they had drilled into their head since childhood.  Sharks weren't like dolphins; sharks would attack without warning or reason, like sirens.  Sharks would eat a mermaid whole if they had the chance, and they often did, and the ones that weren't wild were the tamed pets of sirens, used to corner and trap merfolk before a siren feasted on their flesh.  Sharks were the monster his mother had always used to scare him out of swimming alone outside, in the sunlight, glittering and exposed for all to see.  Sharks had been and were always something that Lance had considered extremely bad things, but... there was something in his mother's tone of voice that told him the easy answer wasn't what she was looking for.

“Go out to the shipwrecks, Lance,” his mother told him, her eyes twinkling with the kind of mischief that he knew his dad had fallen for the day he’d met her.  The kind of mischief which told Lance that this was going to be some kind of riddle.  “See if you can't find a great white shark.  Judge its morality for me, and come back with an answer to my question.”

Lance sat up straight.  “Uh, wait, really?  We’re not supposed to go there, that’s siren territory.”

“You’re not one to talk about being cautious around sirens,” his mother teased.  “I’m not joking though; you need to find answers, or else you'll be conflicted about this for a really long time, and laying on my tail helps no one.  Go on, go!  You’ve done much more dangerous things, the ones you brag about to your brothers when you think I'm not listening. ”

Lance gaped at her, "Wait, you... what?"

His mother slapped him on the shoulder, "I know about that time you swam into a deep sea vent and almost got boiled alive, Lance.  Also the time where you ate a pufferfish, even though you knew it was poisonous.  And when you stabbed your fin through with your father's trident to prove that—"

"Enough!" Lance yelped, covering his face, "It sounds so lame when you say it!"

"And don't forget, you courted a siren for years, lingering in sunlit waters beyond our protection, even though at any moment you could've been attacked by any number of creatures—"

"I'm leaving now, mom!" Lance interrupted with a pout, but he gave her a squeeze before slipping off her lap anyway, “I’ll go find a shark for you.”

He didn't want to tell his mom that if sleeping with a siren wasn’t the stupidest thing he’d ever done, then this would definitely be it.

Lance grabbed his harpoon from his section of their little reef home, checking it quickly for damage before deciding that the sharpened edge would hold, before he swam outside and headed for the edge of the reefs.

He passed by several familiar faces, but Lance didn’t let himself get distracted.  He was a merman on a mission, after all.  Or, eh, the closest thing to it.

As he swam, he idly did a couple of loop-de-loops, turning up to stare at the sun, filtering down into the aquamarine sea and setting his scales to sparkle.  Lance had grown up knowing a lot of things for a fact, and one of those was that the sun was not his mistress; she tricked the eyes and made him a bright target for her children.  The sirens were children of the sun.  They didn’t fear her alighting their scales or tricking their eyes; they didn’t flock together in the reefs in hopes to hide their colors among other bright beings in order to hide from predators.  However, to Lance, the sun’s touch had always been a comforting welcoming one.

The moon might’ve been his mistress, the being he followed the cycle of, whose light made him ethereal, but he had never been one to shy away from the sun.

Maybe that was what his mother had meant, he thought, flipping back over and diving down into the shipwrecks, swimming deftly through the maze of rust and parts.  The sun was not evil, but it wasn’t made for him.  Maybe she had meant that Keith wasn’t evil, but they weren’t meant to be.

Even though Lance was pretty sure he’d figured out his mother’s riddle without even needing a shark, he still knew she wouldn’t be satisfied until he’d brought back some sort of proof that he had figured out the question.

Sharks and sirens were similar; not in looks but in morality.  Right?  Everything had to eat.  It didn’t mean they were evil.

As soon as he found his proof that he'd found a shark, he'd swim back and tell her that.  It wasn't such a difficult riddle after all.

* * *

Keith thumbed at the tip of his penis, letting it wrap around his fingers and squeeze how he wanted.  He trailed his fingers along the ridges, squeezing at the base and sighing softly, wiggling to get a better grip on himself.  He tightened his hand, letting his eyes drift closed so he could imagine anything he wanted.

In this case, he wanted to imagine Lance; the warmth of him in the water nearby.  He trailed his other hand across his lips, trying to imitate the press of Lance's kiss, but nothing was quite the same as the feeling of another.  Keith let imaginary Lance wrap him up in his arms, his slit opening so they could tangle themselves together.  He rubbed hard, trying to replicate the pressure he remembered.  It was a delicate touch, but firm, and so big.  It had been flushed a heady red, but the ridges were tinged blue and rough, just the right amount of stimulation... Keith scrapped his nail lightly against himself, stroking up with a gasp as he tried his best to keep up with the fantasy in his mind.

Lance talked so nice, too, he'd be so good at whispering dirty things in Keith's ears.  His voice was a little high pitched sometimes, when he was emotional, and back then when he'd moaned, and Keith replayed the noise in his head, whimpering a little as he twisted and worked his hand around himself.

And when Lance had touched his tail, had rolled his eggs around... Keith used his other hand to press down on one orb, stifling a sob as it pressed against his sweet spot and made him see stars.  He pushed it deeper inside himself while he squeezed his cock tight in his fist, and he couldn't help but cry out as he came, his orgasm ripping through his body with a shudder.

Keith swallowed, opening his eyes.  He was very much still alone.  He rolled into a more comfortable position, and pretended that he wasn't missing the merman terribly.

He only got a few minutes to doze off in the sun before he was interrupted again.

“Keith!” Swirn called, swimming up to him, “Patrol with me.”

“Do I have to?” Keith asked, leaning back against the hollow rock he’d taken a liking to.  His new egg-weight made him feel either sleepy or horny, and he’d taken to sleeping or jacking it whenever he had no need to be anywhere else.  The shoal had no need of him today, so he was planning to sleep it all off now that he was done masturbating like a pathetic lovesick wreck.

“You know the rules.  No one going to the shipwrecks swims alone.  There’s too many untamed sharks there,” she twisted her hair back into a quick braid, before using a sharp fish bone to secure it.  Having it flow behind her meant it could snag on rotting wood or rusted metal, and the shipwrecks had snared one too many a victim for them not to be extra careful.

Keith didn't want to do that many aquabatics, but he might not get a choice in the matter.  He sighed.  “Here’s hoping for an easy meal and no sharks.”

She nodded in thanks, before turning her back to him and nodding at her clasp.  “Take my bra off?  I don't want it to get damaged.”

_Liar_ , Keith thought.  She just wanted to expose her tits to any potential victims.  Easier prey if your form seduced them for you.  Keith had to get by with his mediocre looks and unruly hair.

He hadn't been joking when he said he could never match how beautiful Lance was.  The lionfish was something else entirely, his face all smooth lines and gentle slopes and soft brown skin.  His eyes were the darkest blue, like a vibrant call of the deep, and they felt like they could become home every time Keith stared into them.  And his hair was short and cute, a chestnut color that was so rare under the ocean that Keith sometimes couldn't tear his eyes away.  And Keith could wax poetical about Lance’s fins for years and still have more to praise.

He was so lucky that Lance was willing to even speak to him.  Lance should try to flee, or fight, but instead the merman kept offering him meaningless kisses just because he was happy to see him, and if that didn't seal the deal…

“Like what you see?” Swirn teased, and he belatedly realized that he’d been zoning off in the direction of her now exposed cleavage.

Keith really kind of didn't, but he supposed they looked appetizing enough if he stopped thinking of Swirn as a siren.

“No,” He said sharply, “Just wondering why you feel it necessary to flaunt yourself to piles of rust.”

She hissed at his rejection, but still dragged him out to the ruined ships with her, stalking through the portholes and gullets of too many broken ships for Keith's taste.

They ran a circle through the perimeter before Swirn paused.  “Did you hear that?  Sounded like a voice.”

Keith hadn't heard it, but he’d also been staring at the glimmering blue scales that had rubbed off onto the side of the ship.  They were the right shade to match Lance’s, and Keith had taken a moment to pine hopelessly for the beautiful merman.

“You go to the newer wreck, I go to the older one?” Keith offered, “We’ll cut off their escape route and track them down faster that way.”

She nodded, darting off into the wreck.

Keith lingered on the blue scales, before heading off in the opposite direction.

* * *

Lance wasn't having too much luck finding his shark.  The shipwrecks were dead silent, empty, and he found most of the portholes just a bit too small for his fins to fit through easily.  He'd found a couple cool baubles, but he didn't bring a bag with him, and he needed both hands free for his harpoon, so he just gave up on those and moved on, looking for any signs of a nearby shark.   Any kind of shark, right now.  He'd stopped being worried about what kind about half an hour ago.  He'd even take a discarded shark tooth at this point, just so he could pretend he'd seen one.

"This was supposed to be a quick venture!" Lance whined, squeezing himself through another porthole.

He glanced around, harpoon in hand, and sucked in a deep breath through his gills.  Lance needed to just, think this through.  He needed to find a shark.  What was he doing wrong?

The perimeter.  He'd been sticking to the perimeter of the shipwrecks, cautious about going any deeper into siren territory.  If he left the perimeter and started going further inside the wrecks, he might have better luck.  He'd also be way more screwed if the shark caught his scent.

Lance took a deep breath and plunged into the wreck in front of him, twisting through the corridor of the decaying wooden ship.

He checked each door down the hallway, peering inside enough to see if he spotted movement, and then moved on, trying to disturb the water as little as possible.  The merman  sniffed, frustrated which each new empty decaying room.

Lance mocked, "Go to the shipwrecks, my mom said.  Go find a shark, she said!  There's no sharks here to find, ma—"

He stopped, sniffing.  Was that... blood?  He glanced down at his fin, looking at the side of it where he'd scraped it against the rusting edge of a metal frame.  Blood seeped from between his missing scales, sluggish and pink in the water, and Lance felt a bolt of terror down to the very tip of his tailfin.

Forget about finding a shark now; he was a fucking danger magnet.  The sharks would find him, and they'd bring sirens on their tail.

And find him, the shark did.

Without a warning, a great white burst through the rotting wood and sunk its rows of teeth deep into the meat of Lance's tail.  Blood erupted from the punctures and the shark didn't stop squeezing, the teeth sinking effortlessly through scale and muscle and close to bone.  Pain was the first thing that registered in Lance's brain, and then panic.  It had blindsided him, sudden and impossible, and fear sunk in, the knowledge that if he didn't do something now, he would die.  He'd dropped his harpoon upon that first bite—and the terror kept him from thinking straight.  He barely kept his scream in long enough to punch the shark in the nose, darting back as best he could with how ripped up his tail was.

"Oh fuck!" Lance wheezed, trembling.  He could barely move, but he dragged himself forward with his hands and weak flickers of his tail.

The shark was momentarily stunned, but not for long enough for Lance to get more than halfway down the wreck's hallway.  Then the creature lunged for him again, faster than Lance would be even if he wasn't near paralyzed from the pain.  It's teeth snagged on Lance's dorsal fin, crunching the bones in its mouth.  Lance bit his lip to keep from sobbing out, pain shooting up his fins and making him see spots of red and black.  

Swimming away wasn't going to work.  He had to kill this thing.

Lance focused the last bit of his willpower and flared his spines, filling them with venom as best he could with the agony screeching through his veins, and as soon as the shark tried to rip the fin off, he stabbed them up into the shark's underbelly with a flip of his tail.

The shark released his fin, but it wasn't dead, despite being punctured so many times with Lance's spines.  He used his arms to pull both him and the shark, snarling and trying to rip itself free, back towards his harpoon.  Once he was within grasping range, the shark broke free from his spines, tearing one or two off with it, and Lance barely had time to grab his harpoon from where he'd dropped it before he had to use the blunt end to force the great white back.  Then, flipped the harpoon, hefting it into hand, Lance cried out as he slammed it through the thing's head, finally rending it dead with a burst of blood.

He watched it struggle once, before it stopped, and finally once Lance felt comfortably sure it was dead, he gave a little incredulous laugh.  "I don't think this was what my mom meant when she said go find a shark."

He was pretty sure she hadn't meant for him to fight one.  Even when his mom was being mischievous, she was never that cruel.  She'd never have wanted him to actually get hurt.

Lance gasped, holding onto where blood was still leaking out of his tail, and he pulled himself out of the shipwreck, trying to drag himself home.  He wasn't safe yet.

Another shark could find him.  There was nothing here for him but danger and pain, and he needed to go back home.  He just... he just wanted to go home.

Everything hurt.

Lance blinked away the pink bloody water, trying to escape the stuff that was leaking out him to breathe freely once again.  He collapsed against a rock, his vision blurring.

A figure with a whip-like tail was swimming towards him, but he couldn't make out a clearer shape.  Keith, he thought.  It had to be Keith.

Keith was here to save him.  Lance smiled, closing his eyes.  He was safe.

* * *

Keith didn't find anything in the older wreck, so he circled back to the newer one.  He sniffed, waiting for a brief second.  Was that... blood?

Swirn must've found a victim.  She wasn't even going to share?  She had dragged him out here on his day-off and made him give up his nap, and she wasn't even going to share?  Keith rolled his eyes.  Fine.  He'd just show up and snatch a fin or arm before she could protest, and leave her.  She didn't deserve respect if she was going to pull this kind of stunt.

He followed the trail of blood, but it led him to an abandoned corridor—no prey in sight.  Just a dead shark, which, sad.  Keith hadn't tamed a shark in a while, and this one looked like she had been especially tough.  He swam in through a porthole and checked over the body, but there was too much blood here to be just from her.  A harpoon was stabbed through her head, and whoever had killed her hadn't even bothered to harvest her teeth.

Keith looked over the punctures on her body, pulling out a dark purple spine oozing with venom.  Lionfish venom.

He frowned.  "...Lance...?"

Why was Lance out in the shipwrecks?  The merman wasn't reckless, not like Keith was.  He might've done some dumb things to get attention, but there was no one here to watch a show.  They'd have heard way more than just this.

Keith sniffed, following the scent of blood further, back out through a cannon port, and saw Swirn floating over a familiar set of striped white and blue fins.

His heart stopped.

Lance.  It was Lance.  Swirn was talking to him, something sickly sweet, but he could tell that Lance wasn't even really conscious still.  A cloud of blood stunk up the rocks around him, clinging to him and seeping out his wounds.

"Lance!" Keith cried, darting forward with his claws out as he swiped at the other siren.  "Swirn, what are you doing?  Leave him alone!  He's a lionfish—do you want to get hurt?!"

Swirn shrugged her shoulders, "He's injured, Keith.  There's no danger from an injured lionfish.  I was just gonna give him some sweet final moments before I made him dinner."   
  
Keith guarded Lance with his whole body, his whip-like tail curling protectively around him at the end.  "An injured lionfish can still rip your gills out, Swirn.  They don't have to be conscious for you to spear yourself on their poisonous spines."

She gasped, "You know him!  Is he the seadweller that you kept frilling yourself up for in neutral waters?"

Keith growled back at her, "Shut up!"  
  
"Oh no, I don't think I will!  I don't think that lionfish has the capability to hurt either of us.  Especially not you, Keith.  Tell me, is he really that good of a fuck that you kept him alive?"   
  
Keith paled, his fins puffing out defensively.  "That's none of your fucking business."   
  
Her eyes caught on how his posture shielded his tail, more forward leaning than he'd be otherwise, and as soon as she leaned in closer to examine him and he recoiled, he knew he was caught.   
  
"You're all egg-heavy," Swirn gasped, "Don't tell me that a merman knocked you up! Really?"   
  
"Swirn, assume one more thing about me and you'll have more to fear than a lionfish," Keith hissed, "Find a different meal.  Lance is mine."   
  
"You have no plans of eating that merman," Swirn accused, "You love him, or at least your head's too stuffed up with eggy hormones to know different.  You'll feel really stupid when you wake up from this one, and you'll eat him without so much as blinking."   
  
Keith shook his head, "My eggs have nothing to do with my brain.  Just leave us alone!  You don't want to fight me.  Carrying eggs or not, I've always been stronger and faster than you.  You won't be getting past me."   
  
"Or maybe you won't, huh?  Because you mated him and now your pretty little head is all twisted up forever.  But not his.  He'll leave you for a proper mermaid.  Merfolk don't mate for life, you know.  It's all very temporary," Swirn taunted.   
  
Keith watched the siren with dark eyes, his arms trembling as he guarded Lance.   
  
"He might've fertilized my eggs, but we're not mates," Keith admitted quietly, "But that doesn't mean anything.  I still won't let you touch him."   
  
Swirn laughed, "Fine, fine.  But don't expect me to keep it secret.  The shoal would've cast you out for carrying eggs eventually, but now it'll go so much faster.  If you love him so much, then you can live with him and only him.  He'll be all you can turn to, and one meal isn't much to live off of."   


Keith watched her swim off, well aware that he'd just traded away his whole community for one person.  He clenched his fingers against the swell of eggs in his tail, before turning back to Lance.  This fucker wasn't dying on him after he'd thrown away the protection of the shoal for him.

* * *

"...Lance?"   
  
Lance blinked his eyes open, staring up into the prettiest eyes, sparkling amethyst orbs that called out to him, like crystal beacons.  "Keith?"   
  
He found a pair of arms around his neck in seconds, Keith laughing in relief as he hugged him, desperately close.   
  
"Lance!  What happened to you?"   
  
Lance felt the injured fins as soon as he saw them.  Ack.  He could barely move, and it felt like more of him was ripped up than not.   
  
"I might've had a run in with a great white shark," he admitted sheepishly.  "If it helps, I won."   
  
Keith snorted, the noise kind of choked up, "Lance, _no_.  Another siren almost ate you.  She found you injured and said she wanted to send you off with a final happy memory.  I could barely tell you were still breathing when I pulled her off of you."   
  
"Keith, I wouldn't have wanted anyone else, I would've fought back if I could've," Lance said quickly, "Eating thing aside."   
  
"Lance, you’re so dumb.  I know that!” Keith pinched him, before looking down at his bleeding fins, and the bite on his tail.  “Let’s finish getting you fixed up, okay?”

Lance noticed that his tail was wrapped up tight with kelp bandages, and Keith had laid out his fins straight before using pieces of shell to set the broken bones.  He nodded, wincing as he sat up as best he could, “So uh, what were you doing out here?”

Keith gave him a sharp look, “What were  _ you _ doing out here?  This is siren territory!”

“Uhhhh….” Lance grinned guiltily, “My mom told me I should go fight a shark.  So I did?”

Keith dropped the bit of seaweed he was wrapping around Lance’s tail in shock.  “...What?”

“My mom asked me if sharks were evil,” he tried to explain, watching as Keith gently resumed wrapping the sluggishly bleeding bite.  “We’re taught that they are, that if they’re not wild, they’re the servants of sirens who want to kill us.  And even if they’re wild, they’re just bloodthirsty beasts without any emotions.”

Keith looked up, frowning, “And did you find your answer?”

“I did,” Lance admitted.  “I thought I knew all the answers, but it’s not as simple as are they evil or not.  They’re not evil.  I think what my mom wanted me to come back and say was that they’re  _ dangerous _ , and whether or not they’re evil doesn’t matter.”

“Ah,” Keith nodded, moving on to finishing setting his broken fins.

“Keith, she asked me that because I told her about us.  It was an analogy.”

The siren froze, his indigo eyes evading Lance’s, even as his clawed fingers gently rested on top of one of Lance’s broken fins.  “She knows about us?”

“She does now.  She wanted me to figure out whether or not our relationship would be wrong.  But it’s not about that.  It’s about how dangerous it is.  How we’d be outcasts in society, how we wouldn’t be totally accepted no matter what we did.  If I’m going to be with you, it’ll be a struggle for the rest of my life.  It will never be easy.  Wrong or right, that’s never been important.”

Keith met his eyes, finally.  “And did that change your mind?”

Lance pulled him into a kiss, thumbing over his cheek.  “I have never had less doubts about what I want.”

“Earlier, with the other siren..." Keith nuzzled his neck, his nose cold against Lance's sensitive gills.  "She asked me if we were mates.  It was so hard to tell her no."

"Then tell her yes," Lance whispered, pushing Keith up off of him enough to stare into his eyes, hoping that Keith would understand him.   
  
They sealed it with a kiss.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I promise smut in this chapter? I lied. Have violence instead. Sorry...?


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I replaced the apology with the new chapter, but I am still incredibly sorry for causing the drama that I did. I hope you enjoy the new chapter. I promise there will be like, less plot less chapter.

Keith pulled back from their kiss with a soft sigh.  “Lance, you need a doctor.  This’ll keep for now, but I need to bring you back to your people.”

Lance almost nodded, sleep and exhaustion clouding his brain.  He wanted Keith to come home with him, and then the doctor could stitch him up and put casts on his fins before giving him some of those nice potions that made everything numb and fuzzy and painless, and then they could cuddle in Lance’s seabed, tucked under a nice thick blanket of kelp…

Except, no, they couldn’t, Lance abruptly realized.  Because Keith wasn’t a merman.  Because that had been his mother’s lesson here all along; he couldn’t bring Keith home with him.  Ever.

“No!” Lance jerked fully awake, shaking off his exhaustion, “You can’t bring me back to the reef looking like this!  The guards would think you did this to me—sirens are listed under non-negotiable threats—they’d just execute you without asking questions!  Keith—”

“And if _ you _ don't get proper medical attention, you could  _ die _ , Lance!” Keith argued, gripping his shoulders tight.  “Your tail won’t heal properly without it, and as it is, I don't even know if a professional can save your fins from permanent damage—”

“Then I’ll stay here and  _ wait _ !  Someone will come looking for me eventually and my mother knows where I went!”

“And by then it’ll be too late!  If you don't get seen soon, the scent of your blood will draw more sharks.  My presence is the only reason you’re not dead yet—they think a stronger predator already claimed you.  Lance, I have to risk taking you back.”

“No!  I can't be the reason you get hurt, Keith!” Lance struggled weakly, trying to  back out of Keith’s grip, “I’d rather get eaten by sharks!”

Keith stared at him, trying to out-stubborn him, until finally he nodded.  “I have another idea… but it might be stupid.   Have you ever heard of Allura?”

“The Nereid?” Lance asked.  He knew of who Keith was speaking of, but he rarely heard her name spoken so freely.  She was a daughter of the ocean itself, powerful and chaotic, and on the reef, Lance had far more often heard her called “the sea witch” instead of her real name.  Merfolk generally avoided her; she would cast spells for a hefty price, but her spells twisted their intent into something painful, never good. 

“Yeah, that’s her.  She’s a healer too; I don't know how good she is, and she definitely won't do it for free, but she’s an option.”

“Again, anything is better than our current situation.  If you trust her, then I do too,” Lance smiled reassuringly, “...anything’s better than you getting hurt.”

Keith bit his lip, “Then I’ll bring you to her.  She’s not far, luckily.”

The siren worked his hands underneath Lance, trying to be delicate, but Lance couldn’t help but gasp and hiss at every jostle to his fins, his body seizing up in pain, and blood welled up anew at his wounds, the bite bleeding heavily.  At the corners of his vision, Lance could see black spots swimming, and he did his best to focus on Keith’s face, those indigo eyes staring down at him, precious and perfect.

“Stay awake,” Keith commanded, struggling to carry all of Lance when he was so much smaller.  It was impressive that he could even pick him up at all.

Lance leaned his head against the hot skin of Keith’s arm, doing his best to just focus on his own breathing for now.  Moving had reminded of everything that hurt, and Keith’s bandages were enough to keep him from bleeding out on the spot but not enough to numb the pain.

And he was so tired.  Keith would be alright bringing to Allura whether he was awake or not, right?

...maybe he could just… 

take a little… 

nap...

* * *

The very moment Lance fell still in his arms, Keith almost had a heart attack.  Of course Lance would pretend he was fine when he was awake, when he was so clearly not!  Keith felt stupid for even thinking that Lance wasn’t as bad off as he’d originally thought.

Was he even breathing?  Keith checked, and the merman's gills weren't fluttering.  The siren shrieked, his sharp teeth slicing into his lip as he bit it in his panic.  What the fuck, what was he supposed to do?  How did he resuscitate Lance when he wasn't breathing?  Swimming, that was it.  He had to make sure the water kept moving in and out of Lance's gills even when he wasn't pumping them.  Sharks did that; if they stopped moving then they'd die.

Keith darted forward, swimming as fast as he could.  The shipwrecks blurred underneath him as he did his best to hold up Lance's heavy form.  It didn't matter how tired he got, he couldn't stop moving.  If he stopped moving, Lance would die.

There was nothing he could do but swim as fast as he could to where the sea witch lived.   The Nereid lived in the deep sea trench, beyond the light of the sun, and Keith had very rarely ventured forth to visit her.  But his uncle and she had been friends, so they knew each other well enough once.  He knew the way, as he approached the trench.

He let Lance’s dead weight hurry along his frantic sinking until Keith was faced with the door to Allura’s abode.  It was made of the carapace of some ancient creature, covered in barnacles and glowing from the inside with some kind of unearthly light.  Something about it all was familiar enough that it alighted all of Keith’s warning signs, but he ignored them all.  He hadn't been here in so long, not since--No!  This was no time for reminscing.

Lance was his priority, and his relationship with the sea witch would only lead him to hurting the one seadweller he now had left in his life.

Keith didn’t so much as knock as he just used his tail to smash the door in, swinging hard on its hinges as he burst in, panic in his tone as he called out, “Allura!”

The Nereid appeared from the back passage, her long silver hair tied back.  Her worktable was cleared off, and several bottled potions floated at the ceiling, clearly corked above water from the air bubbles trapped inside.

Keith laid Lance out on her table, turning to her quickly, “You have to save him.  He’s bleeding from shark bites, he lost three of his spines, and he’s not even conscious anymore, he’s going to  _ die _ -”

“I don’t see you since your uncle vanished right out of the sea and you slam my door open demanding things from me?” She hissed, shoving him away from Lance as she grabbed a bottle, uncorking the potion near the merman’s gills, conducting the water current in her room so that he inhaled it.  It worked his magic, and Lance jolted as his gills fluttered desperately, revived once more.

“I’m sorry, okay, I know you never liked me!  But right now, I’m just a customer,” Keith growled.  “And I need your magic.”

Allura stared at him for a brief moment, hurt in her eyes, before she turned back to Lance.  “Fine. Then I’ll treat you like a customer,  _ Keith.   _ I’ll heal him, but it will cost you.” 

Keith sighed in relief as Allura raised her hands over Lance’s still form, and he began to glow, softly with a blue light.  Keith had never had any kind of talent for magic, but he had always been fascinated with the ease the Nereid wielded it.  He shamelessly watched the sea witch work her arts, her own eyes lighting with a bright pink.

When she looked away from Lance and met his eyes, she snapped, “I have no clue what I want from you.  Or from him.”

“I don’t care what the price is, I’ll pay it.  You know I’d keep my word on this, Allura, I wouldn’t rip you off.  I can’t speak for Lance--but if you want something from me, anything, I’ll give it to you,” Keith assured her, staring down at his heavy tail, "I swear on Shiro's name."

Something in her gaze softened.  “I know.  I’ll take your word for it.  Keith, you rest up.  I’ll see to your mate.”

“Wait, w-we aren't—” Keith protested.

“I know what your hearts both decided; the physicality of the exchange matters not,” Allura said, “He’ll be safe in my hands.”

He frowned, “Do I have to leave him?”

“For now, yes,” Allura shooed him away, “I need complete privacy.  You know where the back room is.  But you must not leave it, Keith, or no payment will suffice to heal him.  I will come wake you when Lance is healed.”

“...Fine,” Keith agreed reluctantly.  

He pressed a kiss to Lance’s forehead, then tenderly to his eyelid, resting his forehead against Lance’s cold skin and praying with everything he had in him that Lance would be alright.

But he was wasting time Allura could be using to heal him, so he drew back reluctantly, his eyes lingering as long as he dared, before Keith gave in to logic and headed for the door.  

It swung upon not into another section of the battleship but to a set of natural caves.  It was impossibly dark beyond, but Keith swam forward anyway with a flick of his tail, searching through the caverns for the familiar room he used to take naps in as a child while his uncle and Allura conversed about boring teenager things.

The cave was long, but his eyes adjusted to the dark enough and he recognized enough of it that he didn't slam into any walls on the twists and turns, and occasionally a bioluminescent piece of algae clinging to the cave wall would give him enough light to navigate by. It was tempting to explore every inch of it, all the new changes and passage ways since he’d been here last, to map it out for potential threats to his mate.  

But Keith’s tiredness won out in the end and when he found the space Allura had been referring to, he made himself comfortable in the empty room with a grated window to let in some light and to keep the water from getting too stale, and a nice hefty pile of sand coating the cave floor, a makeshift seabed.  A deep sea vent sprouted up out of the corner, sealed mostly off with a heavy rock so that the room was heated, almost like a sunny day in tropical waters.  Keith curled up there in the sand, nestling as deep under it as he could get, and he yawned, patting his heavy tail.

“Your daddy’s going to be fine,” he whispered, pressing against the reassuring bumps of his eggs.

Lance had to be.

* * *

Keith woke to the smell of a freshly killed fish, and when he rubbed the salt out of his eyes, he jerked back as he saw a huge seadweller in his room rubbing down a whole halibut, sliced in half and laid open, with some kind of coral.

The seadweller wasn't any kind of being Keith had ever encountered; his skin was darker than Lance’s and such a rich brown that he looked out of place among the dark greys and blues of life under the water.  His stomach faded into a mantis shrimp tail, his many legs scuttling across the floor as he prepared the halibut with a variety of items.

“Awake?” The seadweller asked.

“Y-yeah.  Uh, who are you?”

“Name’s Hunk.  I’m Allura’s assistant, personal chef, and now, your new friend!” Hunk put the halibut to the side as he enveloped Keith in a bone crushing hug, “I’ve never had a chance to really talk to a siren before!  You’re gonna love this dish; boiled halibut with a light garnish of shredded sea cucumber, seasoned with local reef coral and stuffed with a side of mermaid eggs.  I can't get you an actual merfolk for breakfast, but I also was told you don't eat a lot?”

Keith wiggled free, bewildered, “I eat once every two or three weeks.  So uh, I’ll be just fine without breakfast…?”

Hunk pouted.

Keith gave in.  “...But I guess I  _ could _ eat, since I’m egg heavy?  Gotta eat for three, or whatever.  It smells really good!”

The shrimp beamed at him, “Awesome!  Not many seadwellers appreciate cooking, but I am the best chef on this side of the Mariana Trench!  You heathens always eat things raw.  Shameful.”

Keith watched as Hunk opened up a deep sea vent, heat boiling the water as he draped the halibut over the opening.  Keith blinked the bubbles out of his eyes, suddenly almost too warm to be comfortable.

“Not everyone has a deep sea vent either,” He mumbled, watching in fascination.

“It’s unfortunate,” Hunk agreed. “One of the advantages of living down here!”

“But it's kind of difficult to see down here.  And my gills feel heavy,” Keith pointed out, “I wouldn't say it's comfortable.”

Hunk removed the halibut from the vent, now well boiled and the scent extremely powerful.  Keith took a nervous bite when he offered it to the siren, and he was surprised to find that he really liked it. It tasted nothing like raw halibut—it was salty with a strong flavor, and the eggs melted in his mouth.

“It's goophf,” Keith mumbled through another mouthful.

“Of course it is,” Hunk slapped him on the back.  “Now you’re probably pretty eager to see Lance, yeah?”

Keith nodded, his heart pounding as he tried to shove the food down his throat faster so he could see Lance sooner.

Hunk smiled gently, “He’s still asleep, right now.  He lost a lot of blood, which is why he lost consciousness like he did.  But Allura says he’ll make a full recovery, plus or minus a scar or two.”

Keith flung his arms around Hunk, squeezing as hard as he could.  “Thank you!”

Hunk hugged him back, “No problem.  But uh, you still need to pay Allura’s price.”

He hid his frown against Hunk’s skin, “I do.”

Hunk nodded, “Allura won't charge you too much for this.  She acts all tough but she’s secretly a softy!”

“She hates me,” Keith mumbled.

“She doesn’t hate you?” Hunk said, “She’s been worried about you!  She hasn’t seen or heard from you in years, after-”

“I know,” Keith said, exhaling a frustrated stream of bubbles from his mouth.  “But what’s too much?  I have no clue what she’d charge me.”

“Worry about that later!  You want to see Lance, right?  Let's go, before he wakes up!” Hunk carried Keith, more or less, scuttling down the hallway-like cave until they reached Allura’s workshop.  The Nereid herself was absent, but Lance lay on her worktable where Keith had left him, only a faint scar left on his tail from the shark bite and his color restored to his cheeks.

“Lance!” Keith shoved himself away from Hunk so he could hover over the lionfish, double checking his each and every wound to see if they healed properly.

“Allura said he should still rest, since her magic isn't powerful enough to heal him completely, and he’ll definitely be lightheaded and exhausted when he wakes,” Hunk told him.  “But don't hold back on my account.  You can hug him if you want to!”

Keith nodded, turning his gaze back to Lance’s cute sleeping face, and he let himself do what he’d wanted to do since he saw him.  He let himself sink until he laid comfortably with his head on Lance’s shoulder, his tail curling gently around Lance’s.  He hid his sappy smile in the merman’s shoulder, pressing his hand over his heart to track its steady beat.

“Hmm...uh,” Lance mumbled, shifting as he woke.  “Uh.”

“You’re okay,” Keith breathed, wrapping his arms around Lance’s neck and squeezing tight with his tail.  “You’re okay—!”

“Ack, gills, you’re blocking my gills!” Lance wheezed, trying to sit up.

Keith let him go just enough to verify he could still breathe and move, sitting up with him.  “Don't ever make me worry like that again, you giant chunk of whale shit!  You blacked out and stopped responding to me and I could only keep you breathing by keeping us moving so water would rush in your gills.  You would've died if I hadn't been there!  What if I’m not there next time?”

Lance wrapped his arms around Keith’s back, pressing a kiss to his cheek.  “I’m okay.  I’m really okay.”

“Good to hear, buddy,” Hunk said.

Lance jerked, “Hunk?!”

Keith looked between the two.  “You know each other?”

“H-Hunk and I used to be best friends!” Lance stammered, “Like, inseparable!  Then we grew up and he slowly just kind of vanished off the reef.  We all thought he settled down with some nice shrimp lady and moved out.”

Hunk scratched the back of his head, “Sort of?  I fell for a girl, alright.  But she was a human, and… uh, I didn't want her to see me like this.  I'm not even a merman like they sometimes romanticize, I’m… not the most attractive of seadwellers.”

“Lies and slander!” Lance protested, “You’re super handsome!”

Keith squished down the stupid bit of him that felt jealous.

“You don’t have to lie to make me feel better.  Humans aren’t big on seadwellers that have more than four legs,” The mantis shrimp shrugged his big shoulders, “So Allura and I struck a deal.  I work as her apprentice, and I get to see the girl I love in a human form up on the surface once a week.  That's why I had to leave the reef.”

Lance waved him over, tugging Hunk into a hug with Keith halfway sandwiched in the middle.  “Man, I missed you!  I had no clue about you and that girl!”

“I’m sorry, Lance, I missed you too!” Hunk hugged them both tight, resting his head on top of Keith’s, “But it all happened right around when you’d first seen Keith here and it was love at first sight for you too, I knew that.  So we just drifted apart… with you off trying to impress him and me busy all the time working for Allura and I, I guess I thought if I’m going to turn human permanently one day, I might as well walk away from my friends down here.”

Keith did his best to look at Hunk as he asked, “So you’ve only been working here for a couple months?”

“Huh?  No, I’ve been here for almost four years.”

Lance laughed awkwardly, trying to wiggle out of Hunk’s hug, “It can't have been that long—”

Keith turned his head back to stare at Lance, “Almost four years?  You’ve liked me for that  _ long _ ?”

Lance’s cheeks flushed a dark red, his eyes very determinedly not looking at Keith, “I mean, it wasn't always ‘like’!  We had a rivalry going!  I would try to hunt something really ridiculous—”

“Oh man, remember when you went after the whale!” Hunk pulled back, laughing.  He had a nice smile, and Lance turned into this different person around him, so much more comfortable but embarrassed, like Hunk knew all his deepest darkest secrets.

Keith wanted to know all those secrets.  He wanted to wring them all out of Hunk.  He was going to be on his best behavior though; no use angering the person who'd fed him breakfast and the person who was recently near death.  He'd save that for later.

Lance nodded, “Thank you, Hunk, like the whale, and then you’d show me up with having hunted something even more ridiculous—”

“The giant squid, how’d you nab a giant squid?” Hunk asked, beaming at Keith.

“Uh, teamwork,” he reluctantly admitted, “My uncle and I took it down when it started eating too many merfolk—and even sirens, too.  A threat to our food source as big as that meant we couldn't let it live.”

“You didn't even know about the whale?!” Lance made a distressed noise.  “I went all out trying to impress you!”

“I don't care about hunting whales,” Keith shrugged, “I don't eat whales.”

Well, he’d never tried.  Whales were hard to hunt, and they were far too big to eat all at once, and they’d rot before he finished them.  And Keith was never one to kill something he wasn’t going to eat, so he had very little interest in hunting whales.

“All that effort, wasted!” Lance bemoaned.  “It tasted delicious though.”

“He shared it with all of us,” Hunk mentioned, “The whole reef ate whale for days.”

Keith laughed, resting his cheek against Lance’s chest.  He had never felt to comfortable before.  All his life he had been isolated; his parents killed by merfolk and his uncle his only family left.  And his uncle Shiro had always been distant, seeing as he was the leader of the shoal.  And even Shiro had died not too long after the giant squid incident.  Humans had found him; caught him and yanked him right out of the sea onto their ship.  Keith had heard his screams even as he hid as deep as the sea would let him go.

With no one left to care for him, Keith had turned to hunting for himself early, and did his best to move on, barely part of the shoal he had once been born to lead.  Somehow, it didn’t surprise him that he found his home in the arms of a merman.

Lance ran his hand through Keith’s hair idly, still animatedly talking about something to Hunk.  His tail really was mostly healed, so Keith felt a lot less guilty about sitting on his lap.  Whenever Allura came to extract her price, Keith was determined to pay for all of it.

Hunk looked at the two of them with stars in his eyes.  “How did you two finally get together?”

Lance choked, his face turning bright red, “O-oh, you know, like how every seadweller gets together these days!  Haha, yeah, j-just like everyone else, you know?”

Keith clarified, “He hit on me, so we fucked.”

Lance made a noise like he’d been bitten by another great white shark.  Keith double checked to make sure he wasn’t sitting on any of the lionfish’s injuries.  Huh.  

...Was he really that embarrassed by how they started their relationship?  It wasn’t abnormal for sirens to start relationships like that, it was the casual way to express interest.  Dates and talks were for more serious relationships.  He might’ve dove into his relationship with Lance a bit fast, but it started rather normally.

Judging by how red Hunk turned, they didn’t agree.  The shrimp cleared his throat, “I regret asking.  No hand holding first dates then?”

“I’m a siren,” Keith said, looking between the two of them, “That’s just how we start romantic relationships.  Sex first, hand holding when we’re serious.”

“Please stop talking,” Lance wheezed, hiding his face in Keith’s hair.  His face had reached a level of red that even a boiled lobster didn’t match.

“Well you two are still cute…” Hunk smiled awkwardly, laughing off his pink cheeks as he scuttled away.  “I’ll go tell Allura that you’re both awake, alright?  Give you two a moment alone.”

Lance made a whining noise into Keith’s hair.

“What?  Was I supposed to lie?” Keith asked.

Lance mumbled, muffled by the black hair he had buried his face into, “You mean in the weeks after we had sex, all that talking was you trying to convey to me you were serious about me?”

“You didn’t know that?”

“I didn’t know what I thought you were doing, but it wasn’t that!” Lance squeaked, still hiding his face.

“I love you,” Keith reminded him.

Lance croaked the words back, squeezing him tightly.

They didn’t have long to enjoy the moment, as Allura swept her way back into the room.  Her long silver-blue hair trailed behind her, and her robes floating around her form in a way that reminded Keith of a moon jellyfish, translucent and elegant.

She had grown into her ethereal beauty.  Keith had always thought she’d looked lanky and odd before, and he didn’t know what his uncle had seen in her, but now… now he understood.  She was beautiful, and she looked every bit the powerful immortal being she was.

“Can I examine Lance for a moment?” She said, but the tone in her voice made it clear that the Nereid was not asking so much as demanding.

Keith immediately backed off, flattening himself against the back wall, as the water witch examined the lionfish from head to toe.

She ran her hands over his scars, her eyes glowing that pink again, and she made Lance twist this way and that to check the muscles underneath.  Lance looked at her with awe, the first time he’d been in the Nereid’s presence while he was awake.

When Allura let him float back down onto her worktable, he turned to Keith and mouthed, “She’s gorgeous!”

He nodded, drifting a little nearer.

Allura turned to Keith, “I would say he is as healed as my magic can achieve.  Which means it is now time for your price.”

Keith swallowed and nodded.  “I said anything.”

Lance frowned, “Wait, no, I was the one who needed healing.  If anyone’s paying you, it should be me.”

“He promised payment to me, and payment is what I will extract from him,” Allura held her chin high.  “Keith, I have decided on what you owe me.”

“What do you want from me?” the siren asked.

“Your seed.  Siren milt is a powerful aphrodisiac if swallowed, and also acts as a paralyzing poison.  I would find it most useful in my potions.  Your uncle used to supply me, in exchange for spells.  I offer you the same deal.”

Keith sighed with relief.  “I accept.”

“Wait, like, she wants your cum?” Lance stared at the two of them, his mouth hanging open.

“That is exactly what I want from him,” Allura said.  “Do you want me to choose a different payment?  I could always ask for several of his teeth.  I have never had the chance to experiment with siren teeth.  It might even be a better choice, seeing as they are as irreplaceable as your life.”

“Milt is fine,” Keith said, giving Lance a frustrated look.  “Please don’t rip out my teeth.”

“Excellent,” Allura produced a small vial that she placed in Keith’s palm.  “Please fill this for me. Alone or with your mate, I don’t care, but make sure it is pure.  I have a dry cave on the surface that you may use to insure that it remains undiluted by even ocean water.”

Keith smiled up at her, closing his fist around the glass, “I will.  And Allura?  Thank you.”

She gave him a warm smile, wrapping him up in a hug.  “Don’t be a stranger anymore, Keith.  I was worried about you.”

He hugged her, weirded out by the amount of physical contact he’d gotten all in one morning.  It wasn’t bad though.  He’d never say it was bad.  “I won’t be.  I’m sorry…”

Locking eyes with Lance, Keith whispered, “I don’t want to be alone, not anymore.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the rough chapter and the delay in posting. Real life got in the way for a whole week and I couldn't write. I'll probably go back and brush up this chapter later.
> 
> Also, I'm debating de-anoning this fic. Don't be alarmed if that happens eventually.

It had been a while since Keith had ventured above the surface.  It reminded him too much of the last time he’d seen Shiro.  Just thinking about air, about breaching the water, it made his heart pound, his pulse thrum in his ears, dragging him back there...

_ The surface air rushed to meet him, and he breached against his will, tugged up the side of the ship.  The barnacles on the side of the wood scraped him raw and his lungs weren't prepared to breathe air, and for a moment he was drowning, dry breaths choking his lungs and his gills slamming shut as quickly as they could. _

“Keith, are you okay?” Lance asked gently.  “You went pale for a minute.”

Keith shook his head free of memories.  Seeing Allura had reminded him of his uncle, and now those old memories came to the surface of his mind faster than ever before.  He took in a deep breath, and affirmed, “I'm okay.  I promise.”

They both pulled themselves up the side of the cave, breaching the waterline and hauling themselves out and up onto the dry bubble of the undersea cave.

Lance wasn’t used to breathing air with his lungs either, and the two of them laid on their backs for a while, just adjusting to using organs that often fell unused.

“I mean, I know she’s not here…” Lance started to say, before he had to stop and heave in a huge breath, “...but doesn’t it feel like Allura’s watching us?”

“Are you not into that?” Keith teased, his voice equally as hoarse as Lance’s.

“Not especially,” Lance admitted.

“I don’t even know what I’m into,” the siren said, his still eyes burning and watering from how dry they felt above water.  “I mean, I’ve done pretty much everything sexually…ha, and I don’t know what I like…”

“Me, obviously,” Lance joked.  “My fins got you thrashing for me.”

Keith weakly slapped at him with his fins, sitting up now that he felt a bit less winded.  “Other than you.  I usually feel too hungry to really care what I’m doing or how.”

Lance, caught him around the middle, pulling him on top of him, “Then we can figure it out together, you know?  I want to make you feel good, that’s the point.”

“That’s what made you different,” Keith huffed, readjusting to lying on top of the merman.  He felt guilt sit heavy on his chest as he whispered,  “I thought you’d just lose interest if you got what you wanted; that you’d fuck me and then try to fuck off… but you wanted  _ me _ to enjoy it, you wanted to know  _ me _ .  And I’ll be honest, if you hadn’t shown me that I wasn't just some trophy to you, some conquest to brag about, I was planning on eating you.”

Lance paused.  “You lied to me?”

“I’m a siren, Lance,” he sighed, “We’re all liars.  I've danced that dance with a dozen different partners.  I trick them and they believe me, and then I eat them.”

The lionfish stroked a hand down his back, gentle, “I don’t like it, but what can I do now?  There’s no point in getting mad at something that didn’t happen.  Plus I really shouldn’t even be surprised.  I thought you were going to eat me too, until you didn’t.”

“I’m not lying now,” Keith said quietly, “When I say I’m never going to.”

“I do know that,” Lance said, “You know your skin gets this really interesting texture above water?  It’s like, almost slimy, but also weirdly dry.”

The siren snorted a laugh, “Fuck you.  You feel like laying on a pile of bones like this.  You’re all pointy elbows and sharp bits.”

Lance poked him in the side, “How’s that for pointy?”

Keith bit him on the neck playfully, enjoying the full body shiver that ran through Lance’s body.  He hummed, “Oh, you like that?”

“My gills are sensitive!” Lance whimpered, but he laid his head back, oh so willing and pretty, and Keith laid his mouth back on those delicate folds and sucked, a keening plea falling from the merman’s thin lips.

The vial in Lance’s hand clinked against the rocks, and they both jerked at the sound, reminded of their true purpose here.

“Fuck, the payment,” Keith groaned, wiping off the bit of saliva and salt water that still connected him to Lance’s neck.

“Tonight gets to be all about you,” Lance cooed, flipping them over so his tail was pinning Keith to the ground.  He slithered down to press kisses to the closed slits, even his second one, which Keith had every intention of keeping firmly shut, even if he knew it wouldn't hurt the eggs to let Lance in.

Lance traveled back up, until he replaced his mouth with his fingers, tracing up and down the uppermost slit gently.

Keith hesitantly leaned back, his forearms baring his weight as he stared up at the ceiling.  There was something in what Lance said earlier; despite the fact they both knew she wasn't watching, it did feel like Allura was.  And when he knew Lance wasn't into that, it made him feel ashamed that they were still trying to do this.

“Stop thinking, Keith,” Lance whispered.

Lance licked along the upper line in his tail, his long fingers seeking out the lower slit and teasing along it, dipping just slightly inside.  Keith throbbed, tingles shooting up his spine.  He wanted to just lay himself open and curl in on the feeling all at once, and Lance continued to kiss along at the sensitive scales, until Keith just couldn't help his arousal, his cock bulging and pushing against its confines, eager to wriggle free.

He gasped, warm, too warm, as Lance’s thumbs spread him open, his genital slit wide as his dick slid out.  The very tip of it traced along Lance’s lip, and the merman licked up the underside, his tongue dragging rough and cool against Keith’s hot sensitive skin.  Keith keened, throwing his head back as he thrust his hips up, trying to grind on Lance’s face.

Lance took pity on him and swallowed him down, swirling his tongue in sinful patterns against the rough underside and teasing the tip with every flutter of his gills. The suction was so good and Lance’s mouth was cool against his burning skin, the temperature difference making it feel even more overwhelming.  Keith trembled, his breath coming faster as he inhaled the harsh dry air through his lips.  

“L-Lance,” he begged, “Please—”

Lance pulled off, his hand reaching back for the vial.  He worked it on with one hand—gripping Keith’s dick hard to keep it steady—and he used the other hand to ease the tip deep enough inside that the vial’s opening was completed sealed by his flesh.  The pressure hurt in a good way, and Lance’s murmuring stayed soft until he’d secured the vial.

Then he leaned his head back down and let his hands join his mouth in a sensual dance along Keith’s shaft, working the ribbed edges with a combination of his teeth, lips, and tongue.  He traced underneath it, and the impossibly light touch had Keith writhing, his mouth bitten pink as he desperately tried for more.

With a satisfied look, Lance waggled his eyebrows at their eye contact.  Whenever Keith got too distracted in the angular panes of Lance’s face, or in the way the light reflected off of his patterned tail, Lance retaliated and teased helpless moans out of him until it felt like he could take no more.

And then Lance took one of his ridges in his fingers and tugged, and Keith yelped out a moan as he came.  His orgasm came as a surprise, way sooner than ever before, and Keith had to take a second to breathe before he could look at the oddly prideful look on the merman’s face.  And why wouldn't he be?  Lance’d coaxed an orgasm out of a siren under his careful touches faster than Keith had ever done himself.

But they had to fill the whole vial, though, so they weren't done yet.

Keith let himself have a brief moment to cool down before he wondered aloud, “You gave me a blowjob… Are you okay?”

“My lips are numb,” Lance admitted sheepishly.  “From that paralyzing stuff?  It's a hunting mechanism, isn't it?  They can't fight back if your  _ dick _ poisons them.”

“I meant  _ mentally  _ more than  _ physically _ ; I know it’s not lethal.  Who the fuck sucks someone’s dick right after they learn it’s poisonous?”

“...I miiiiiight be slightly into that?”

_ “Lance.” _

Lance laughed.  “Remember how you said my strength and my fighting skills, they did it for you?  Keith, I know you’re a predator.  You’re a siren.  And I don’t want you despite that; every bit of you does it for me, because it’s all a part of who you are.”

Keith pulled him up for a kiss, chasing the faint taste of salt on his lips, before he pulled back and rested their foreheads together, their wet hair mingling together as they breathed the same dry air.  Keith found Lance’s hand, entwining their fingers, whispering, “You’re not good at keeping the mood.  Now I just want to cuddle.”

Lance groaned, “Really?   _ Really?   _ We have a whole vial to fill!”

Keith leaned back, laughing, “Maybe you need to put on a show for me.”

It had mostly been a joke on Keith's part, but the suggestion flashed dangerously across Lance’s eyes, his secondary set of teeth gleaming from behind his first.  Lance pressed him back down into the harsh jut of the cave’s rocks and with his hands heavy on the siren’s shoulders and his tail pinning him down, Keith was trapped under the merman, and he had no complaints about it.

Lance’s spines flared up, flooding with venom, and the sight of them had Keith’s heart speeding up.  They reminded him that his chosen mate was not easy prey, not to anyone or anything; even the missing spine just showed that he was a fighter, impossibly capable and strong.

“Want to know why I brag sometimes about being the best hunter in the reef?” The lionfish whispered, pressing his weight down on Keith.  The indigo glow on those spines began to drip, drop by tiny drop of venom onto Keith’s bare stomach.

“...why?” Keith murmured back, running his hand up Lance’s back until he traced the base of those thick spines, stroking up until he touched the mid of Lance’s back and could feel the powerful indent of those muscles.

“Because I can shoot these out of my back if I need to.  And I never miss.”

Lance removed one, making a face as he slid the cartilage out of his back.  The spine was long, deceptively tipped with a fin at the end to mask how sharp it truly was.  He took the spine and placed it in Keith’s palm, watching him closely.

Keith weighed it in his palm, curious, “It’s heavy.”

“It slices through water faster than I can swim,” Lance took it back, hefting it up above Keith, pointing the sharp edge at Keith’s throat.  “You want to know one thing I noticed…?”

Keith swallowed dryly, his heart pounding faster than ever before as the venom dripped onto his throat.  “What?”

“You’re into this,” Lance purred, slamming the spine down into the rock right beside Keith’s neck.  The force of the blow sunk the cartilage several inches deep into the stone, and Keith whimpered, turning his head into the feeling of the spine that just barely missed piercing his neck.

Lance was right, he’d never felt more aroused in his life, breathing heavy and heart pounding in fear.

“You like being at my mercy,” Lance said, pressing a tender kiss to the drying-out flaps of his gills.  “You don’t want to be hurt, though.  And you know I won’t hurt you.”

Keith nodded, a tiny moan slipping out of his mouth.  He tried to rut up against Lance’s scales, but the vial made moving awkward, and he burned with how much he wanted, and how little he could move.

Lance mouthed down to his chest, biting sharp into his tender skin.

Lance worked his hand up and down the shaft, dragging his fingers along the ridges and squeezing harder when he hit the base.  He lightened his strokes to be mere brushes of sensation, torturing Keith with how much he wanted, hopelessly begging with each muffled whine for Lance to just touch him.  Keith dug in his nails, pulling Lance in closer as he tried to wrap his dick around his fingers.  Lance laughed against his skin, pulling his hand back and watching as Keith’s tip followed him, desperate for a firm touch, something more than the teasing that had him gasping.

“Lance, I need you--” Keith pleaded, whipping his tail up and around Lance’s until he could grind himself against those rough scales.

“Okay, okay, sweetheart,” Lance kissed his cheek, grabbing him at the base and wrapping each finger around him slowly, firm enough that Keith felt the building pleasure with each new finger.  And then he stroked, pumping him hard and fast and it was too much; Keith had already been there, had already been wavering on that tense edge, and he could do nothing but keen and spill himself again into the vial.  His vision blacked out and he was lost, trapped in the haze of pleasure and the fuzzy chill of Lance’s arms around him.

Lance eased him down from it gently, milking the last few drops out of him until he finally pulled off the tiny glass vial.  Stoppering it with the cork, Lance shook it in front of Keith’s unfocused eyes.

“I’d say we probably have enough for now,” He said, winking at Keith.  “And all without Allura’s watching eyes.”

* * *

The two seadwellers weren’t free from Allura’s watching eyes after their payment had been delivered, exactly.  Lance had had to finish recovering, and Allura had wanted to keep an eye on him until then.  So for a period of four days, Keith and Lance found themselves living quite comfortably in Allura’s spare room.

But those lazy days couldn’t last, so it was when Lance finally had Keith to himself and they were alone and quiet, that he brought it up:  “What are we going to do from here?  You don’t have anywhere to go back home to, and I… my mother’s got to be losing her mind, right now.”

Keith let Lance run his hands through his unruly dark hair.  The repetitive motion was soothing, and even though Keith’s hair was rougher than his own, he liked the feel of it. 

“Now that you’re healing, Hunk and I could probably sneak you back safely into neutral waters,” Keith said slowly, “Then you can see your mother and your family, and tell them that you’re alright.”

"Oh man, yeah!" Lance nuzzled into the ink black hair of his mate.  "My mom, her name is Ana, and she's incredible.  She's a lawyer, as weird as it sounds.  She works with seadweller law, but it's mostly property law now.  What territory belongs to who, and whatnot.  My dad's one of the chiefs of the reef, and he's this big guy, really tall and really nice.  And then there's my siblings, I have... thirteen, I think?  I love them all, but my brothers are kind of terrible."

The siren swished his tail idly, "I can't even imagine having thirteen siblings."

"My mom's prolific.  Although like 3 of my sisters are triplets, so it wasn't exactly intentional," Lance licked his lips, "I'd have even more siblings if I wasn't so good at finding where she hides her eggs.  I think between the thirteen of us, we cleaned out her last two batches of eggs entirely."

Keith wrinkled his nose.

Lance scoffed, "Oh, get over it.  It's normal!"

"It's weird!" Keith shook his head, "Sirens don't talk like that."

"That's because you're all weird about eggs," Lance shrugged, patting about where he thought Keith's eggs lay in his tail.  He bet they'd be delicious when they came out.  Although who knew if Keith would let him actually eat them, since again, the siren was weird about eggs.  They'd talk it out later, he guessed.  They'd never really finished their talk about what to do with them, after all.  Still, abandoning them seemed like such a waste.

" _You're_ weird about eggs," the siren scoffed.

"Whatever," Lance conceded, "It doesn't really matter.  What matters is that I can't wait to see my family again!  I just wish I could bring you back with me.  They'd love you."

"Sure..." Keith said.  He wouldn't meet Lance's eyes, and something in his face had darkened from when they'd been joking just moments earlier.  Lance tilted his face up with his thumb, searching his eyes for an answer, but he found none.

“If I'm going back home for a few days, then... What about you?” Lance asked as he tucked a strand of dark hair behind Keith’s earfin, securing it there.

Keith frowned, “I can’t go back to the shoal.  I’m… I’ll stay with Allura, for now.”

“... alright,” Lance agreed, “Is she going to charge you for that?”

“I think so, but it’s not like there’s exactly a shortage of payments I could provide her with,” Keith stroked Lance’s cheek with his thumb.  “From there, we can talk more about… about making a home, okay?”

Making a home.  Lance pressed every emotion he felt, every fear, every anxiety, every bit of anger and of reluctant forgiveness, and every ounce of joy over the thought of their future, into the seam of the siren’s lips.  Making a home, he thought, and there had never been a better way to phrase it.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he promised.

* * *

Keith let Hunk take Lance the remaining way, too wary to really venture too far into neutral waters.  The shoal would be looking to kill him, if the reef’s merfolk weren’t already.  For once, he understood what Lance meant when he mentioned the moon being his safe haven.  Keith felt exposed in the sunlight that had always been his home, and the warm waters felt stifling more than anything.

He quickly retreated back to the safety of Allura’s, sitting down with the Nereid and watching her work her magic.

She let her long hair billow over a tiny whirlpool of her own creation, her eyes glowing an unearthly pink as she gazed into something that Keith couldn’t see.  The water witch kept the water swirling until Keith felt the current of it whip his hair back around his face, her magic tingling his nerves with each touch.  Her passive expression became more and more frustrated as she watched events beyond Keith’s capacity to understand, until she cursed and gave up, letting the whirlpool spiral out of control and then, existence.

“What were you trying to do?” He asked as he saw her flop down next to him, crossing her legs.

Allura bit her lower lip, “I know you gave him up for dead, but… but I have never stopped looking for Shiro, Keith.  He was your family, yes, but he was… he was the man I fancied myself in love with.  Even to this day, sometimes I get glimmers of him, in my dreams, but I cannot scry out his presence for the life of me.”

Keith stared down at his swollen tail, remembering his parents who were never able to raise him, and how Shiro might’ve been many years younger than his older brother but he still stepped up to the plate to raise his brother’s orphaned child only 10 years younger than he was.

He was going to be a parent soon.  The thought kind of terrified Keith.  He didn’t even know if he wanted to be a parent.  Lance had so nonchalantly said that he could just eat their eggs, but Keith didn’t… he didn’t want anything to happen to his eggs, or to Lance, or to the life he was building.

If it hadn’t been for Keith getting trapped in that net, that Shiro would never even have been caught.  If Shiro hadn’t sacrificed himself to save Keith, then Keith’s life now was just impossible.  If there was the chance to save him, then Keith had to.

And if he could have Shiro back… if he could have his uncle and his new life, then maybe he didn’t have to be so scared of everything.  Because the longer he sat here, without Lance to soothe his fears, the more anxious he got.  He had so many fears that Keith felt like if he even so much as let himself feel them, he would doom himself to a spiral as explosive and depressing as Allura’s failed whirlpool.

He took a deep breath in through his gills.  “If he really is out there, then I’ll help you find him.”

Allura took his hand in hers, “I would never ask this of you as a price, but if you’re willing to give it to me… then I know of something that would find him.”

Keith looked at her, searching her eyes.  He squeezed her hand back, “What is it?”

“Your memories of that night.  Of when they took him.  I need you to give them to me,” She said.  “I need you to relive them.”

Keith nodded.  “I can… I can do that for you.”

She got up to her feet, "Let me grab my things."

Allura came back with a mirror in her hands, gilded gold with pearl inlays around the edges, and she pressed the surprisingly warm metal into the palm of his hand, curling his fingers around the handle.  For herself, she had put on a matching circlet into her white-silver curls, except the inlay seemed to be made of some kind of clear, tarnished glass.  When she sat down across from him again, he turned to face her, his heart pounding.

Could he even relive these memories?  He'd kept it locked away for so long... but the more time he spent with Lance, the more he knew he had to look into this.  How could he try to start a future or, or 'build a home' like he'd told Lance when he'd been avoiding so much in his past?  Taking a deep breath, Keith closed his eyes and swallowed down a gulp of salt-water.

"I'm ready," he said.

"Alright.  Hold up the mirror for me, and look deep inside it.  I will do the rest," She said, leaning in to watch the clear surface of the mirror with him.  His own face, his wide nose and his thick brows and his full lips, stared back at him, his almond eyes too intense for him to hold his own gaze.  The longer he looked, the younger his face seemed to be, until Keith was staring back at himself almost six years ago, his cheeks still covered in sunburns and childish freckles.  His indigo glare, angry and bitter, captured him, and was the last thing he saw before he plunged into the abyss of his past.

 

_ Shiro, they’re gonna catch us, I can't keep up with you—” he shouted, staring directly back at the net still tangled in his tail.  His fins were trapped against his side, and the rope attached to the net kept dragging him up, no matter how many times he yanked himself back down. _

_ “They’re using you to lead their ship,” Shiro hissed, his fins flaring out.  “They don't just want us; they’re after the whole shoal!  We have to cut that rope!” _

_ “I can do it on my own—just go before they catch you too, Shiro!” Keith demanded, stopping short and twisting to look at the rope trapping him.  It was really more of a cord, wires braided into it to reinforce the length against creatures of the deep.  His claws alone couldn't cut through it, and any moment he didn't swim downwards led him to being yanked dangerous close to the surface. _

_ There was no sun to see by, and the haunting glow of the moon mocked him as he struggled. _

_ Shiro at least would be safe, Keith thought, desperately fighting against his rope.  His uncle could go warn the shoal and everyone would be safe, and he’d catch up with him once he cut this wire-cord.  If he could cut this wire-cord. _

_ Winded and tiring, Keith forgot to swim downwards as he ripped at his restraints, and then it was too late.  The surface air rushed to meet him, and he breached against his will, tugged up the side of the ship.  The barnacles on the side of the wood scraped him raw and his lungs weren't prepared to breathe air, and for a moment he was drowning, dry breaths choking his lungs and his gills slamming shut as quickly as they could. _

_ His body flopped weakly on deck, and the humans who tugged him aboard all started to laugh, to mock. _

_ They were dressed in uniforms, heavy thick fabric with rapiers strapped to their sides.  This was no pirate ship. _

_ Keith screeched, thrashing. _

_ A man looked him over, his lapels declaring him the captain, and shook his head.  “Wrong mermaid.  The one that killed my wife had black and white scales, like an eel mixed with a koi fish.” _

**_Shiro_ ** _ , Keith panicked. _

_ “Let me go!” He begged. _

_ The captain shook his head.  “Kill it.  We’ll use the body as bait for the other.” _

_ One of the humans drew a spear, aiming for his chest as they approached. _

_ Keith waited, until just before the spear pierced his skin, before he whipped his tail around and let the spear sink into the rope tying him there.  He used that to free his fins, trying to escape with everything he had in him. _

_ “Don't let him get free!” The captain shouted, and suddenly a million rough hands were all over his skin, tugging and grabbing and Keith shrieked, biting and clawing at every one of them until he drew rivulets of blood, streaming down arms and wrists and fingers, sliced off roughly at the bone. _

_ “Keith!” Shiro called from the side of the ship, and Keith wriggled free of the rope finally and plunged over the edge through the cannon port. _

_ “Shiro!  You have to leave!” Keith screamed, as soon as he had the water in his lungs to do so.  “They’re looking for you, I think they want to kill us—” _

 

Allura drew back, taking the mirror with her.  “I saw enough.  I can sense him now."

Keith hiccuped, blinking as if that would bring him back to where he was.  "T-they just took him, they grabbed him and he didn't stop screaming a-and _—_ "

"Shh, Keith, you're alright," she promised, wrapping his shoulders up into an embrace.  "You're safe, that all happened years ago."

Keith buried his head into her shoulder, sobbing, "Why couldn't I move?  W-why did I hide, I should've tried to save him!"

"You were young and scared, no one would ever blame you," She soothed, worry creasing her brow.  "We were too hasty in looking into those memories.  I was too eager, I'm sorry... We should've waited until your mate returned from the reef."

Keith jerked his head up, shaking it, "No!  No, I'm okay.  What did you find in my memories?"

Allura released him from her hold, standing up and beginning to pace.  Her long robes trailed after her elegantly as she explained, "I narrowed down Shiro's likely location from his captors, and was able to feel his aura.  He was hidden from my scrying for so long because he's not in a ny true body of water… they have him trapped on land, and that’s why I couldn’t sense him.  The human king… Zarkon is his name.  It’s within his palace that he keeps Shiro chained up.”

Keith clenched his fist.  “So he’s alive?”

Allura nodded.  “He’s very alive.  Sick, suffering, but alive.  But he might be beyond our reach... While you can breathe air, you can’t walk on land, and I can’t travel much farther than a few meters from the shore before I am drawn back to my sea.”

“N-no!” Keith swam up and grabbed her shoulders, “We can’t just leave him up there!  There has to be a way to save him!”

She gently removed his hands from her, holding them for a brief moment, “Keith… you’re egg-heavy.  You can’t risk your life and the lives of your children on a suicide mission.  Maybe in a few months, once you’ve laid the eggs, I could cast a spell on you to turn you human long enough to save him, but right now... everything is too risky."

“I don’t care!  Shiro’s _alive_ , Allura, you just confirmed you know where he is!  We have to do something, especially if he’s being tortured!” Keith trembled, ripping his hands out of her grip, feeling unseen tears well up in his eyes again, twice in that morning.

Allura shook her head.  “At least wait until your mate returns.  If we are to save Shiro, we’ll need all the help we can get.”

“No!” Keith clenched his fists, “What’s Lance got to do with this?  He’s safe right now; he’s with his family!  Why can’t you just tell me how to get mine back?!”

“Because he _is_ your family now, Keith, as am I!” Allura snapped.  “Shiro has survived years without either of us.  He’ll survive another few days without your intervention, Keith, until Lance returns.  I will chain you up with my magic if I have to!”

He stared at her, her blue-green eyes piercing his scales and finding the true substance of him underneath.  She likely could literally see right through him, and he had no choice but to remember that while this was Allura, Shiro's paramour, this was also Allura, the Nereid, one of the most powerful witches in all the seven seas.  Keith took a deep breath, clearing his head, but his anxiety and anger still burned within him.

“Fine!  I’ll wait!  And if Shiro dies because we took too long…!” Keith trilled back at her, his fins flaring up as he shrunk back into the curl of his tail.  He knew it was childish, but he couldn't help it.  If Shiro was alive, then Keith had abandoned him for years.  Keith had been off doing stupid things like flirting with a mermaid and getting knocked up and... and if he didn't do something, then the guilt and shame would eat him alive.  Even waiting now, he wondered if he could just steal one of Allura's potions, turn himself human without her knowledge, and sneak out before Lance even returned.

Allura kneeled down next to him, placing a gentle hand on his tail.  “...this is about something else too, isn't it.”

Keith bit his lip, tasting a quick burst of blood, "I... I'm so scared, Allura.  And Lance... He has this whole family that he loves so much and this whole life waiting for him back there.  I don't... I don't have anything outside of Lance right now.  I am terrified of relying so much on one person."

"I understand," she said.

"I just, I just want Shiro back.  I just want my family, Allura, I don't want to be alone anymore," Keith choked.  "I love Lance so much but I need my uncle.  Especially now.  I don't know what I'm doing, Allura, and it scares me."

Allura let him lean his head on her shoulder.  "I understand.  Keith, you aren't alone.  You have Hunk, Lance, and I at your side.  And soon, you'll have Shiro beside you as well.  You have been strong this whole time, but you don't have to carry your burdens alone now.  Lean on us, Keith.  Wait for Lance to return.  He'd never want you swimming off on your own, not when he could be at your side."

"Alright," Keith reluctantly agreed.  "And then what?"

"And then we save Shiro."


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has a lot of sections about gender that may be problematic. If you are sensitive to that kind of discussion of gender, I would suggest that you skip from "Tonio waggled his eyebrows..." to "...Xavier poked his little head into the main room," and also from "Exactly! They could rot inside his stomach and poison him if I do that!” to "Allura crumbled. “Fine. I’ll make you two both potions..." to avoid those sections.

Hunk wasn't really guarding him so much as letting Lance talk his ears off, but Lance appreciated his presence anyway.

“...and when I asked him if he wanted to eat, Keith told this really stupid joke!  He was all like, ‘I’d like to have you come for dinner.’  I didn't know whether to be scared or horny.  Both?  Both is good,” Lance finished his story with a dreamy sigh.  “He’s so amazing, Hunk, he’s everything.  I can't believe this is happening to me, that he wants to be my mate.”

“I'm glad you found the love of your life, Lance,” Hunk smiled at him.  His hands were folded in front of him as he swam alongside Lance, his shrimp tail beating the water with his legs folded in.

“But you did too!” Lance punched him jokingly, chuckling, “Tell me more about this girl!”

“S-Shay?  You want to know about Shay?” Hunk blushed, covering his cheeks with his hands.

“You only had to put up with my Keith talk for… over half the trip back to the reef!” He pointed out.

“Oh, alright…” Hunk beamed, “I met her on a trip to the surface.  Allura had turned me into a human so I could gather supplies for her in the nearby town—that’s called Arus, by the way.  It’s part of the queendom of Altea, or well, it used to be.  I think the Drule empire conquered Altea some years back but don't tell Allura that her information’s gotten rusty—for a thousand year old Nereid she sure doesn't stick with the times—but that’s all crazy politics that don’t matter—”

“Yeah yeah, get to the good stuff already!” Lance heckled.

Hunk nodded, his eyes gaining a far-off glimmer, “Arus is where Shay lives.  She works in this cute little cafe called the Balmera Bakery.  It's amazing, she is so tall and strong and she has the best smile. She always slips me a cookie if I go see her.”

“Wait, wait, go back.  I'm confused, I thought you said you only became Allura’s apprentice after you met Shay?”

“No, that’s true.  I was trading Allura for a favor at the time.  I’d broken a leg, and needed a healer who uh, actually knew about legs.  No offense to you reef merfolk of course, but you’re not too good with legs.”

“None taken.  So Allura sent you to the surface in exchange for her healing your leg?  So she could get something?”

“She wanted a mirror,” Hunk nodded, “Magic this or that.  I had no clue where to even find a mirror, and I stumbled into Shay’s shop.  She looked at me, smiled, and then I fell in love.  And Shay’s so kind, Lance, I’ve never met anyone who can light up a room like her.”

“Oh damn,” Lance smiled, “She sounds really great.”

“I mean, maybe Allura can turn you into a human once so you can meet her!” Hunk said.

“I dunno about that,” Lance scratched the back of his head, “Maybe once you two are getting mated or something.”

Hunk pouted.  With big ol’ guppy eyes.  Lance crossed his arms, but then Hunk pulled up the wavering bottom lip.

“Or whenever, I don't know!” Lance caved immediately.  “What does Allura usually charge for those humanizing spells?”

“Well, I’m her apprentice, so that's a big part of it.  But the spell itself finds something of yours that she takes temporarily.  For me, it’s my strength.  As a human, I’m clumsy and weak and I have no endurance, not like how I really am.  It tends to be your most valued physical trait.”

“Oh my god, it’d be my face!!” Lance screeched, “I’d be faceless!”

“Nothing that dramatic,” Hunk patted him reassuringly on the shoulder.  “She might take your eyes though.  You have the sharpest sight underwater.”

“So I’d be blind?”

“Only as a human.  She’d give them right back,” The shrimp shrugged.

“I guess I could handle that but,” Lance looked away, nibbling on his lower lip, “I can't imagine wanting to be human permanently.  Are you sure, Hunk?”

“When you meet Shay, you’ll understand,” Hunk said readily, “She’s the moon to my waves.  She causes my tides, always pulling me back to her.”

Lance did understand.  That was how he felt about Keith.  There had always been something in his eyes, in his body, that dragged Lance back to him, again and again.  Ever since he’d first seen him, honestly.

_Lance slide one of his spines out of his back and aimed it, sticking his tongue out as he steadied his arm.  The large silver king salmon was poking just far enough out of the school that Lance knew if he stayed quiet enough, he’d be able to spear it in one go._

_Lunch, he thought, licking his lips.  He waited, shut his gills, and the moment approached in trembling increments._

_The salmon left the school chasing its own prey, and Lance threw his spine hard enough that it pierced right through the scales of the king fish._

_“The hunter becomes the hunted,” Lance trilled, pulling his spine out of the dead fish and examining it giddily.  None of his brothers could toss their spines like he could._

_“The hunter becomes the hunted, huh?” He heard a gentle voice chuckle._

_Lance jerked his eyes up, seeing another seadweller swimming there, a grin on his face.  Octopus ink hair floated around deep purple eyes, and the thin, whip-like tail of the other seadweller alerted Lance to the fact that this wasn't a merman._

_He didn't have gills on his sides, Lance realized, and Lance flared up his fins in order to make himself look bigger and more threatening._

_“I'm a lionfish!” Lance said, mouth on autopilot._

_The other boy laughed again, swimming a little closer, “I can see that.  What’re you doing out here?”_

_“Hunting,” Lance said, his spines flaring up against his will.  He held onto his salmon with both hands._

_“Cute,” the siren boy said, draping his arms over Lance’s shoulders even as he was careful not to spear himself on Lance’s spines.  “You must be pretty good at that.”_

_“Are **you** any good at hunting?” Lance snapped.  He shoved the siren’s arms off of him. _

_The siren bristled, “I’m plenty good at this!  I had you going for a second, right?”_

_“You’re like 16, I’m pretty sure you’re not even old enough to hunt for yourself yet!” Lance said, waving his fish around.  “I’m 18, I am old enough to do this!”_

_“Fuck you, I am 18!” The siren snapped, “Okay, I’m 17 and 6 moons but close enough!”_

_“That's what I thought,” Lance said.  “Maybe I should just give you this salmon.  You’re not eating me today!”_

_“You’re so annoying, eating you’d be doing everyone a favor!” The siren groaned._

_“Shut up… you, you… mullet-head!”_

_“I look nothing like a mullet!”_

_“Not the fish, the hairstyle!”_

_The siren scrunched up his nose, offended, “I do not have a mullet.”_

_“Keep telling yourself that,” Lance sniffed, holding his salmon up to his chest.  “What’re you still doing here?  I’m going to spear you like this fish if you try anything… uh, what’s your name again?”_

_“Keith,” the siren said.  “It’s… It’s Keith.  And nevermind, you’re not easy enough to bother with.  For now.”_

That had been the first of… many meetings.  Most of them full of bickering, but again and again, Lance found himself drawn to Keith, or vice-versa, until their fateful encounter months ago.  When things had changed, between them; when they’d finally become more.

“Dude,” Hunk said, “You’re about to run into your mom’s house.”

Lance turned back to look at him, blinking, “Huh?”

He collided nose first with a wall of pink coral, full speed.  Whining, Lance took a moment to right himself and breathe, clearing the coral spores out of his gills with a huff.

“Told you,” Hunk said.

“Not soon enough,” Lance sulked.  He swam around until he found the entrance, ducking his head in, “Ma?  Enrique?  Tonio?  Aidan?  Philippe?  Rico?  Xavier?  Jorge?  Yvette?  Carmen?  Julia?”

His younger brother Rico was the first to poke his head out.  “Lance, shut up!  It's too early for you.”

Rico had never been a day person, not like Lance was, and he spent most of his time sleeping until the moon had risen high in the sky before he decided it was time enough to move.  Lance wasn’t terribly surprised that he was feeling cranky this morning.

“You shouldn’t be sleeping, Rico,” Lance pointed out.

“Shut up already, we’re sleeping,” His brother Aidan grumbled in agreement, “We stayed up all night searching for Lance, we’re allowed to sleep in.”

Lance felt his stomach twist with guilt.  Apparently his family really had been worried.  “No need to keep looking, then, since I’m back.”

A chorus of grumbles sounded, until he heard his baby sister Julia’s squeak, “Lance?!”

She poked her head out of the back cave, her long hair covering her eyes, but when she saw him, she shrieked, “LANCE IS BACK!!” and dive-bombed him, clinging onto his arm as she angrily told him where he could shove it for making all of them go looking for him.

Then suddenly an entire school of merfolk flooded out of their sleeping room, acting like guppies as they started to crowd him, hanging onto his fins or wherever else they could grab.  All of his siblings found some bit of him that wasn’t occupied by another sibling, and Lance sunk to the floor, covered in the comforting weight of his family.

Only Hunk held himself back from the hugging fest, smiling as Lance’s siblings squeezed out all of their worry.

It didn’t take long though before the happy reunion started to break up, and Lance could actually breathe through his gills again, sitting in the main coral cave with all of them lounging anywhere they could find seating.  Lance ended up between Hunk and his brother Tonio (had to keep those two apart), with the rest of his siblings more or less in a circle around them all.

“I missed you monsters.  It’s good to be home,” Lance said softly, to Julia sticking her tongue out and calling him a sap.  “I got bitten by a shark, so that’s why I wasn’t home!  I even have the scar to prove it.”

“Scar?  No way, that’s too badass, I want a scar!” Carmen said excited, swimming over to stare at him close up.  “Show us!”

Lance struck a pose, letting them all see where his scales were replaced with tooth-shaped dents in his side.  He’d always have those marks now, but it was worth it, in Lance’s opinion.  It was visible proof of the lesson he’d learned, and the sacrifice he was ready to make.

Besides, his siblings all thought it was cool and that was what really mattered.  Lance hadn’t found it in himself to ask Keith what he thought of the scar, but then again, he hadn’t needed to.  Keith had traced it lovingly, with his tongue, teasing Lance with every playful nip of blunt teeth to the sensitive skin--

“Hunk!!” Tonio cheered, taking advantage of Lance’s distraction to switch sides and sidle up close to his crush, tossing his arm around Hunk’s broad shoulders and running his fingers up Hunk’s chest.  “Hey, sexy thang~!  Haven't seen your pretty face in a while.”

Lance reached out with his tailfin and slapped his horndog of a brother, but it didn’t get the barnacle to stop clinging.  Luckily, Hunk was definitely still used to this.  “Back off of Hunk, he’s not interested.”

“Thanks but no thanks, Antonio,” Hunk removed the arm good-naturedly.

Tonio had been hitting on Hunk since the seadweller first introduced himself to Lance’s family as his friend.  Hunk had thought Lance was a bad flirt, but no one compared to Tonio.  If his fins weren’t flared wide and scrubbed until shining every time Hunk came around, with a million inappropriate sexual offers sliding off his tongue like a sea slug sliding across the reef, Lance would’ve thought his brother had been swapped out with an impostor.

Tonio waggled his eyebrows, “If you still aren't into dick, I can switch it up for you.  I've always wanted a pretty set of breasts to play with, I wouldn't mind.”

Lance didn’t even need to say anything to shut that shit down.  His brother Aidan groaned, “Tonio, stop.  That’s not funny, that’s down-right disrespectful.”

“It’s not a joke, I’d do anything for Hunk-darling here,” Tonio blew Hunk a kiss.

Hunk flushed dark red, “Uh.”

“You just got so many legs, it’d be a shame not to have them _all_ curled around me,” the merman winked. “You know me, I just have a thing for legs.  I could handle being a chick for the rest of my life for a good fuck from a big dude with nice legs.”

“Shut up, Tonio, no one wants to think about your non-existent sex life.  Or your dick rotting off,” Yvette snapped.

“Not true, Yvette, as I find the transformation fascinating.  Everyone experiences it differently,” said Lance’s science nerd brother Jorge, who had gone through his own transformation and was quite happy with the results.  “If I could just run some studies on your hormones during the process, Tonio, I could attempt to isolate the growth hormone used to manipulate growth!  Imagine it's applications elsewhere.  Regrowing flesh after siren and shark attacks that would've left someone disabled, for example.  Please only attempt it when I have several syringes prepared and have the weekend free.”

“Sorry, Hunky-dory,” Tonio sighed, removing his arm and leaning against his twin Philippe instead, dramatic to the point of putting even Lance to shame, “Guess not this time around.”

Xavier poked his little head into the main room, whispering, “I found Ma.”

Lance’s mother swam into the room in a frantic panic, her spines flared, likely without her knowledge, and her claws out.  She had a look on her face that spelled out that either Lance was in a lot of trouble, or his mother was never going to let him leave the reef without supervision again.

“Where's my boy?!” Lance’s mom shoved everyone aside, yanking Lance into her arms.

“Rude,” Aidan said.  “We’re here too, Ma.  Don’t you love us?”

“Shut up, spawn,” She swatted Aidan away, not letting Lance up from her hug.  “Oh, baby, I was so worried.  I’m so sorry, I thought you were hurt…”

Lance hugged his mom tightly back, breathing in her comforting scent of home, enjoying her embrace and her undivided attention.  

“I’m back,” he breathed.

“You had me so worried,” she blubbered into his hair, stroking it gently.  “I thought I’d gotten you killed!”

“No, Ma, I’m okay!” Lance reassured, “I got bitten by a shark, but I’m all healed over now.”

Yvette giggled, “It's a shame it didn't eat the rest of Lance.  I want his collection of pearls.”

“Shut up, Yvette, those are for--” Keith, his brain filled in, they were pearls he’d collected to give to Keith, and he still intended to do that, once he’d strung them up into proper jewelry.  Still, he blushed.  No one else in his family was supposed to know that.  He cleared his throat, “They’re for someone who is not you!”

“Ooooh, so they’re for Keith?” Philippe said, the betrayer.

“I’m sure I can convince him to gift them to me in your will,” Yvette smirked, “After he eats you alive.”

“Enough of that,” Lance’s mom said, and her tone belied no chance of compromise.  All of Lance’s siblings quieted, and Lance pulled back from her hug to look at her.  He’d really made her worried this time, and… and for good reason.

He swallowed thickly, “Ma, we should… we should talk.  Alone.”

She nodded.  She escorted him to her room in the coral structure, and she shut the kelp-weave curtain to give them the illusion of privacy.  At the very least, his eavesdropping siblings wouldn’t interject this way, although Lance was well aware that Xavier, the quiet sneak, was likely to know every detail of his conversation and relay it to the rest of them before Lance could so much as rejoin Hunk in the main room.

His mother curled her tail up as she sat, folding her hands as she waited for him to join her on the sandy sea bed.  Lance wrung his hands together, wondering where even to start.  

“So I figured out your riddle,” Lance decided to begin with.  “But only after the great white took a chunk out of me.  All I had to do was scrape my tail against the shipwreck, and the shark almost took out enough of my tail to kill me.  I managed to spine it through and kill it before I passed out, but the blood loss was intense and… and I almost died, if not for Keith coming to save me from another siren, who’d marked me down as easy prey.”

His mother threw her arms back around his neck, holding him close again as she breathed in deep through the gills on her side.  “My little starfish… Lance, I’m so sorry I asked you to do that.  I wanted to teach you a lesson about your responsibilities and your choices, but I never wanted you to learn it quite like that.”

“I know,” Lance comforted, “I just took it too far on accident, like I always do.”

“I should’ve known better, as a mother,” She shook her head.  “But I’m so proud of you for making it back to me.  I’m the proudest mother in the world.”

“Mama,” He breathed, “C-can I tell you the rest?”

“Of course.”

“Keith, after he fought off that other siren, he got kicked out of his shoal.  For me.  And he was going to bring me back here, but any siren bringing a half dead mermaid with a bite taken out of them is risking death, and I wouldn't let him take me back here.  So he took me to the sea witch, Allura instead, which is how I healed.  But now he’s got nowhere to go but to stay with her,” Lance saw how his mother’s eyes just looked incredibly solemn, and he joked to lighten the mood, “...and that’s not cheap for anyone!  That woman does not do discounts, not even for friends of the family.  Rude.”

“Did she ask for your unborn child?” His mother teased, taking the tone and running with it.

Lance blushed, “In a weird way, yeah?  She wanted Keith’s, uh… She had me and him fill up this vial with his--”

“You can stop now, silly starfish,” His mother snickered, tugging on his earfin.  “So the Nereid is the one who actually healed you?”

“Yes, she did,” Lance nodded, “Shark bite’s all healed up.  Or, mostly.  I’ll have to wait for the spines to grow back in at their own rate.”

She nodded, turning him around in her grasp so that she could rub at the blank notches in his back where the cartilage usually sprouted.  “And having them ripped out didn't cause any permanent damage to your spine?”

“If it did, Allura healed that too,” Lance promised.  “But Keith, he paid for all this, for healing me.  And he can't go back to the shoal anymore, not since he chose me over them.  So while he’s staying with Allura, for now, that can't last.  And I’m not leaving him out on his own, Ma.”

His mother released him, staring him straight in his eyes.  From one set of deep blue eyes to another, she told him millions of times the three words that reassured him of what he already knew; that she loved him.  And with her mouth, she said, “I would be more surprised if you didn't want to protect your future mate.  I should've been expecting this for years now, honestly, you’re too adventurous to stay at home like Jorge.  Plus I’ve seen you marking out that cove on the south shore for you and your little lover when you thought no one was watching.”

“Mom!” Lance squeaked, “What?”

“You’re my little starfish, Lance,” She kissed his forehead gently, brushing away his bangs, “When you get what you want, you cling to it like nobody’s business.  And you’ll never let anyone hurt it or take it away from you.  As soon as _he_ caught your eye, I knew I’d be having this talk with you sooner or later.  And I’m alright with it.  You’re meant for a big wide world; you always have been.  I could just tell, even when you were a guppy, that no one could cage you in.  I want to see you happy, and this Keith, he makes you happy?”

“Always, Ma,” Lance said, holding her tight, “He always has.”

“Then you have my blessing,” She promised, running her fingers through his hair.  “But you are required to let us come visit you.  I want to meet Keith.  And threaten him.  A little.”

“Don’t threaten him, Ma,” Lance sniffled into the crook of her neck, “But you can come over as much as you like.  Keith—he doesn't have a big family, but I think he’ll be happy, to you know, share mine?”

“Of course,” She said, “And Lance?  Before you go, take a piece of the reef coral.  Just like Kaleb did when he moved out to live with Serena.  It's now our little family tradition, okay?  You’ll always have a part of your childhood home with you that way; a reminder that your family will always be with you.  We’ll support you through anything.”

Lance sniffled, squeezing as tight as he dared.  “I love you, ma.”

* * *

Hunk escorted him back safely, but he didn't have to go far before Keith swam full speed into his arms.

“Lance!” Keith trilled, squeezing around Lance’s neck just this side of too hard.  “I have to get going, right now.  I have to save him, you have to tell Allura you’re alright with me turning human to break him out!”

“K-Keith?”

Keith said in a rush, tripping over his own syllables, “Shiro!  Allura found him, he’s still alive, but I have to save him.  I can't just sit here anymore.”

Allura cleared her throat, her arms crossed and her expression dark.  “You can and you will.  I don’t even have a potion ready for you, Keith, nothing in my home right now will turn you human.”

“Why did you make me sit idly by for the last two days then?!” Keith snapped, “When you could've been making one?  You want Shiro back just as much as I do.”

“Because it’s not safe!  Lance, tell Keith he’s being hasty and stupid about this!” Allura turned to him, “I don’t care what you try to pay me, Keith, I’m not letting you go unless you have a real plan, and… and only if Lance agrees to go with you!”

Hunk said softly, “But isn’t Keith egg-heavy?  Turning him into a human will kill his eggs, won’t it?”

“Exactly!  They could rot inside his stomach and poison him if I do that!” Allura said, frustrated, “Male-sexed humans can’t carry young!”

“Then turn me into a female-sexed human!” Keith snapped, frustrated.

“That’s not something you can just chose, Keith!  You didn’t just chose to be Keith one day, you _are_ Keith!” Allura grabbed him by the shoulders, “You were dysphoric before puberty, you only held out because you knew you’d get the chance to become who you really are!  I’m not going to be responsible for turning your body back into something that makes you feel sick with yourself!”

“Wait, wait, stop!  Everyone, just, just shut up!  I’m so confused!” Lance yelled, “What do you even mean?  Someone start at the beginning!  Who’s Shiro?  Why do we have to turn into humans to save him?  What do you even mean, before puberty?!”

“Shiro is my uncle,” Keith said, staring guiltily at the floor.  “I thought he died about four years ago, but Allura used my memories to locate him.  He’s trapped on land by humans and being tortured.”

“So you want to go save him,” Lance confirmed, “And you have to be human to go on land and rescue him.”

“Yes, Lance, I can’t just leave him there, he’s the only biological family I have--”

Lance placed his finger gently on Keith’s lips, shushing him.  “I know, sweetheart.  I know, okay?  And Allura, you can’t turn Keith into a human because...?”

Allura nodded.  “I have to chose between the sexes; humans don’t exactly have something in-between… or if they do, I don’t have the talent to craft a spell for something I’ve never seen before.  It would have to be either a male-sexed or a female-sexed body that I could craft for him.”

“Okay, that’s not ideal obviously, but we wouldn’t become human at all without your help, so we can’t complain,” Lance nodded, his heart pounding, “Keith, I’m going to assume that you staying back and having us go without you isn’t an option.”

“He’s my family, Lance, I am not going to stay here like I’m helpless just because you knocked me up,” Keith snapped.  “I got him captured four years ago, because of my own stupid mistakes.  I have to save him.”

Lance reached out and squeezed Keith’s hand, smiling at him gently.  “Alright, we won’t leave you behind.  Which means you are going to have to become human somehow.”

Allura snapped, “I already said, no!  It’s too risky.  The chances of the eggs poisoning his body is already high, not to mention the dangers of just going on land in the first place.  I only let Hunk do so for me because I know all he does is flirt with Shay and buy my ingredients, not try to break into the royal palace and release one of its high security prisoners!”

“You said you’d let me do it if Lance went with me!  If we had a plan and if Lance went with me!” Keith hissed, his gills flaring out, “I don’t care if it kills me--”

“If not for you, I’d never have even met Shiro!  Knowing you died for him would destroy him!  What happened to the life you were so excited to have?  What would Lance do if you killed yourself over something stupid like this?!” Allura cried out, “I’m not letting Shiro’s only family go out and kill himself on a suicide mission!  This is why I made you wait!  You’re not even thinking!”

“Neither are you!” Keith sobbed.  “I just want him back!”

Lance reached out, tugging Keith against him.  “She’s not saying we’re going to leave him there,” He whispered into Keith’s hair, holding the siren tightly.  “Because we’re not.  But she’s right.  We need a plan, and you can’t go alone.  In fact, it should be Hunk, me, and you that all go.”

Hunk nodded, “Yeah, I’d definitely help.  I know way more about human life than either of you.”  

“But Keith--” Allura interjected.

“He said he’d be alright with being female-sexed, right?” Hunk stopped her, “So why not?”

“Because at puberty, on their 14th birthday, sirens choose their gender and their new name,” Keith said quietly, “And I chose to be male.  To be Keith.  But before then, I was Akira, and I didn’t enjoy being her.”

“I’m not going to just force him back into being female when it tortured him as a child to have everyone misgender him constantly, telling him he couldn’t switch pronouns until he got old enough, that until his body changed to match his gender he was a ‘she’!” Allura crossed her arms, “Shiro knew it was killing you inside.  I refuse to hurt someone I consider a friend like that.”

“Not even to save Shiro?” Keith asked.

Her shoulders trembled.  “I… Shiro wouldn’t want you to…”

Lance stroked through Keith’s hair, untangling the knots nervously.  “But it’d be temporary, Allura.  And it’s not like we’d start calling him Akira again or start using female pronouns for him.  If Keith is willing to put up with it for a couple days, then he can become a human safely, right?”

“Relatively,” Allura agreed.  “There’s no way of avoiding all the dangers, but…”

“I’ll do it, Allura,” Keith said, leaning his head against Lance’s chest.  “I was dysphoric before, I can handle a little more dysphoria.  I mean, it’s not like I’m human.  I’d be in a strange body either way.”

Allura crumbled.  “Fine.  I’ll make you two both potions.  But by the time I’ve finished brewing them, the three of you better have a plan.  That’s the only way I’m allowing this to happen.  And don’t even ask me about what the price will be--if you succeed, it’ll be returning Shiro to me.  And if you fail, it’ll be so astronomical that I don’t even want to calculate it.”

* * *

Lance floated down to sit next to Keith, staring out at the distant shore.  “What’cha thinkin’ about, darling?”

Keith worried his bottom lip, “A lot of shit, honestly.”

“Makes sense,” He agreed.  “Lots to think about.  Are you really going to be okay with all this?”

“I’m worried that he won’t even recognize me,” Keith choked, folding his arms around his tail, curled up as tiny as he could get.  “It’s been four years, Lance.  He… he missed seeing me grow up.  I was still 17 when he got captured instead of me.  I’m not a teenager anymore.”

“I don’t know, you were a lot scrappier at 17 but you still looked like you,” Lance said, “I knew you all the way back then, too.  You don’t look that much different.”

“I feel like an impossibly different person,” Keith sighed, his head slumping onto Lance’s shoulder.  “I met you right before he disappeared, honestly.  You were one of the first mermaids I tried to hunt for.  It was dumb, but you were cute, and I figured if I had to start feeding myself eventually, I might as well go for the cute guy.”

“18 year old Lance would’ve definitely killed you if you’d tried to sex me up,” Lance blew a bubble at him, smiling slightly, “He didn’t know what he was missing out on.  Or well, I… I kind of did?  At first I was just irritated because you said I wasn’t even worth it, so I started trying to get you to notice me.  I wanted to fight you.”

“I know,” Keith snorted.  “I’d finish eating and suddenly you’d be there, fins spread out aggressively, running your mouth.  I still thought you were cute, but most of the time, I just wanted you to leave me alone.”

Lance pouted, “I deserved that.”

Keith laughed, “You were so obnoxious!  When you started flaring up your fins to flirt around me, I was so stunned because I thought you were trying to like, fight everyone.  I didn’t realize you had been posturing to me the whole time.”

“Want to know a secret?” He said, poking at Keith’s chubby cheek.  “It took me four years to realize I liked you.  And by then, I didn’t know how to stop competing with you, so even then I spent a lot of time trying to show you up.”

“Yeah, you did,” Keith swatted his hand away, smiling softly, “You don’t know how much I wanted to tell Shiro about that.  I wanted to come home and tell him that I ran into you again, that you kept making my head spin.  I wanted him to laugh with me about how cute you were.  And now, it’s like I have this second chance to have everything.  Maybe I’m being selfish, wanting to have Shiro back too when I already have almost everything else I want in life.”

Lance frowned, staring at Keith’s downcast indigo eyes.  “It’s not selfish to want to save your family.  Allura told me you were scared of me, of us.”

Keith nodded, slow, “I don’t know how to do this, Lance.  You have your mom, your whole family.  All I have is you, and that… that scares me.”

“Makes sense,” Lance agreed.  “But just because you’re allowed to want Shiro back in your life, it doesn’t mean you should hurt yourself to save him.  After all, all we even have to go on from Allura is that he’s on land, and that he’s alive.”

“But her magic is powerful,” Keith reminded Lance, “If she sensed Shiro, she sensed him.  That mean’s he’s definitely still alive out there.  If doing this to save him is what I have to do...”

“But you’re not exactly… I mean, you’re not in tip-top shape, sweetheart.  We’re definitely going to rescue him, I’m not holding you back, but…”

“I know what you and Allura have been trying to tell me.  I’m reckless, but I’m not deaf.  I know it’ll be difficult.  I have to choose between my own identity and Shiro, and that’s before I’ve even breached the surface,” Keith sighed, “I know it's not a good time, but I can’t just wait.  He’s been trapped by them, tortured by them, for four years.  Lance, Shiro is my uncle, but he’s always been more than that. Shiro’s like my dad and my brother and my best friend all at once.  I can't just leave him to torture, and I’m only going to get _weaker_ , Lance.  I’m not waiting the two months it’ll take me to get these damn eggs out of me to rescue him, not when I know how to save him now.”

“Then we’re saving him,” Lance murmured, “But I’m not letting you get hurt.”

Lance grabbed Keith’s hand, tangling their fingers together.  “I’m with you, for the long haul.  I know we haven’t mated yet, I know that we’re putting it off, but that doesn’t change how I feel.  You know that, right?”

“Yeah, I do,” Keith smiled tightly, squeezing his hand with each and every finger.  Lance never wanted to let go.

* * *

Allura slipped back under the water, leaving her underwater cave’s air bubble for the safety of the sea.  In her hands were two glowing potions, the blue sea glass coloring the bright liquid inside strange unnatural hues of purple and turquoise.

Hunk already had his own potion in hand; Allura kept extras for him stowed away.  And as Allura explained to a rather huffy, confused Keith, each potion was designed for the individual.  One of Hunk’s potions would just make Keith vomit orange liquid for several days until it worked its way out of his system.

Allura sighed.  Troublesome boys.  She didn’t know why she was so considerate of them, especially since they liked to challenge her entire way of life.

After what happened to her, she had been prepared to live in peaceful ignorance of the surface’s affairs for the rest of her life, and even though she had never given up on Shiro, she was never sure what she’d do if she ever did find him.  Rescue him?  She couldn’t walk more than a couple steps on land before her curse kicked in, and dragged her back down under the waves, and she had resigned herself to it.

Still, these… these children were determined.  They were so young… and Allura was over a thousand years old, and instead of taking responsibility and being full of the same fire she had burned with when she was younger, she was going to let them risk it all.  How shameful, Allura chastised herself.

But for now, this was all she could do.  She couldn’t break her own curse, and she couldn’t give them any more help than this.  She’d done her best to dissuade them, and it did nothing.  So now these potions held all her dreams and wishes, as much love for Shiro as she could muster up, and she was going to entrust them to these young things.

Allura took Keith’s hand in hers, and gently placed the glowing purple vial into his palm.  He looked like he was about to uncork and chug it down right then and there, so she hastily warned, “ _Don't drink it!_ Not until you’re ashore; you could drown underwater if you don't.”

The turquoise one Allura entrusted to Lance’s outstretched hands, watching as he curled his fingers around the neck of the glass bottle firmly.  She explained quietly, “Using either of these comes with a price of it’s own.  I can’t give you all you want without taking something back.  Your human forms will be imperfect, because that’s how my magic works.  I take something from you in exchange for giving you something, because I must.”

Keith nodded, cradling the potion gently in his palms.

“Lance,” Allura frowned, “I decided to take your voice from you.  Until you return to your natural form, you won’t be able to speak.”

“Legs for a voice seems like a decent enough bargain,” Lance said with a grin.  “We’d never be able to search for Shiro on land without your help, Allura.  Really, you don’t have to apologize so much.  You’re doing what you can.”

“I know… I just wish I was free from my limitations.  I wish I did not have to make Keith choose, and I wish I could give you all you both wanted.  I want Shiro to return to us safe more than anything, but I have to demand a price…” Allura sighed.  She turned to Keith, and told him, “I will take your hearing.  As a human, you will be deaf.”

“That’s fine, Allura.  I already told you, I’m willing to give up as much as you need me to,” he said.

Allura had more gifts for these two yet.  She pulled out of her pocket the worn and rusted key that she had kept with her for all these years.  She prayed that they didn’t change the locks.

“This key should let you in the backdoor of Zarkon’s castle.  It should make sneaking into the castle much easier,” She said, handing Lance the key, and pulled the other item out of her pocket, a worn gold ring, the pearl in the center cracked.  The ring, she placed in Keith’s hands.  “And this is the best I could do for your plan.  If you can get in, that ring should turn Shiro invisible long enough for you to break him out.”

Keith slid the ring onto his index finger, sighing as nothing happened.  “Only Shiro, huh?”

“My magic has its limits,” Allura said bitterly.

“Thank you, Allura,” Lance said, poking Keith in the side.  “Be nice, you dickhead.”

“Right.  Thanks, Allura,” Keith said, and his eyes, dark purple and swirling with emotion, said far more than his words.  Allura knew that she could trust this child to bring Shiro back to her.  She only hoped that he returned to her himself, too.

She took a deep breath in.  “Are you ready to leave?”

“Yeah,” Lance said, pulling Keith over to his side.  “We’re totally ready.  And you think our plan’s going to work out alright?”

Hunk interjected, “I know Shay won’t let us down.”

Allura smiled, “Then I trust you.  Come back safe to me, please.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is part of a two-part update that I am going to be posting! Expect the other half of the chapter up on Friday. Thanks to everyone who has waited so long for this update! Another big huge thanks to Forrestwyrm who drew something for this fic (link in the end notes)! Thank you so much for sharing your art with us!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry about the late update! I ended up adding more to a scene, well, at the end of this chapter, so this chapter is a longer one. ;D
> 
> You might notice there is an author attached to this fic now! This was a decision I've deliberated about for a long time, and decided that in order to respond to comments more easily and in order to make it easier for people to talk to me about this fic, I've decided to de-anon. Please be gentle with me. I'm really shy and skittish and I originally published this fic as anonymous to protect myself, but so far everyone has actually been really kind, so I'm going to trust you all so I can properly appreciate all the love I've gotten for this fic.

Lance hadn’t been on dry land in years.  The feel of dry sand against his scales was bizarre.  And the air continued to scorch his lungs, the sun just too bright--he felt like he was drying out and dying on the beach right then and there.

Keith was not doing much better, hacking up a lung as he accidentally inhaled salt water through his mouth into his lungs instead of through the filter of his gills.

“You two are really like beached fishies,” Hunk teased, who had walked on land with absolutely no problems whatsoever.  “Crab got your tongue, Keith?”

Keith spit out a mouthful of water, “Fuck you too, Hunk.”

“Does the dying feeling go away if we drink those potions quicker?” Lance whined, trying to flop back into the water just enough that he didn’t feel like he was becoming a husk of his former self.

Hunk laughed.  And then laughed some more.  

“Those potions make you feel like shit, buddy.  You’re going to feel like you’ve been scorched from the inside out.  I’d wait a good second or three before busting those out.”

“Shitty potions.  Shitty land,” Keith whined.  “What’re legs good for anyway?  No offense, Hunk.”

“According to Antonio, they’re sexy,” Hunk said, folding his many legs down underneath him.  “I can go first, if you’d like.  I’m used to this.”

“Sure thing, buddy,” Lance said, propping his head up on his hands as he watched the mantis shrimp drink the orange liquid in one gulp.

At first it was nothing.  Hunk just put the glass bottle down next to him and didn’t look phased at all.  And then the strangest thing started to happen.  His tail started to look weird, faded, not as colorful as before, and then he just… stood up.  And stepped right out of his shrimp tail, his legs covered in gore and dripping with blood.  The tail was left behind, dead and stiff.

“Oh sweet lord Triton,” Lance shook his head, “You can’t be fucking serious.  My tail is just going to rot off?  I’m gonna step out of my beautiful tail and leave my scales to get eaten by seagulls on the beach?”

Hunk shrugged, “Usually I toss it back into the waves to hide my cover.  That’s too much meat for the local gulls to pick off, and I don’t even want to think about what a human would do if they saw it.”

Keith beamed, excited, “Lance, you should turn back before me!”

Lance quickly realized what Keith was intending.  “Keith!  You aren’t eating my tail once I step out of it!”

“But I’ll be better off if I’ve eaten, and I haven’t eaten for a week and a half!” Keith smiled sheepishly at him, and damn him for making it look charming.  “It’d be such a waste…”

Lance shuddered.  “You both are gross.”

He drank his potion in the same way Hunk did.  Down the hatch, all at once.  It tasted like he imagined human’s fire felt like, and soon he felt it in his bones.  He let out a pained scream, his spine shredding itself as his scales began to just slough off of him in bloody chunks.

Once he felt like he wasn’t about to boil alive, Lance touched up at his ear fin and he watched as it flopped off in his hand, blood splattering across his chest.  He tried to squeak but nothing came out of his mouth, and his… legs?  His legs twitched, trapped in the gory, bloody mess of his now dead tail.  He scrambled backwards, watching as two red human legs pulled themselves out of the flesh of his tail.  In the chaos, his other earfin fell off, and Lance was stuck as a blood-coated human, staring down at what his dead body would probably look like one day.

“I’ve got your spines, buddy,” Hunk said helpfully, stroking his hand down Lance’s back and forcing the pieces of cartilage to slip down his spine and drop onto the ground.

Shuddering, Lance slipped back into the water and hastily scrubbed off the blood into the ocean.  He didn’t like the feeling of being wet in this form at all.  Even the ocean water felt frigid, like ice across his bare skin.  He jumped right back out, wobbling on his unsteady feet as he tried to avoid stepping on his own spines and poisoning himself.

“You should keep those spines,” Keith hummed, his sharp teeth slipping out of his gums as his dull ones retreated.  “Your spines will still carry your venom, and we need weapons.”

Lance opened his mouth to agree, and then shut it when no sound came out.  Oh fuck, that was going to be more annoying than he’d originally planned on.  Especially if something went wrong; he’d never be able to tell anyone what was happening.

Hunk gently swiveled him around, pointing towards some rocks on the other side of the beach, tucked up against the cliff, near the stairs.  “See those?  Behind the rocks is a chest full of human clothes.  I’d say you get dressed, and find a quiver for your spines.”

Lance didn’t ask Hunk what a quiver was, mostly because he was sure he would take much too long writing it out on the sand than it would just figuring it out himself.  Behind him, he heard a wet noise, and he turned back enough to see Keith rip out a large chunk from what was his tail and swallow it, and nope.

He turned, ramrod straight, away from his lover.  He wasn’t going to watch Keith essentially eat him, even if his tail was no longer attached.

Instead, he figured out walking, which turned out to come naturally to him so long as he just didn’t think about having legs.  Once he started to think about walking, he started falling down.  And air had never been kind on those who were prone to falling, not like water, which gently eased you down.  Air made him almost bash in his nose on rocks with every step.

Finally, Lance made it to the chest, and he pulled out something he thought would work for his arms.  He had it half slipped on on arm before Hunk tutted.  “Lance, those are pants.”

Lance tried to make a frustrated noise, but his squawk of indignation just wasn’t coming out.

“They go on your legs,” Hunk explained, taking the pants from him and showing how one leg went into the hole Lance had assumed was for an arm.  All of these clothes were sized for Hunk, and therefore sized for someone much bigger than Lance, so in his defense, most of the pieces of clothing looked like they could go anywhere anyways.

Hunk handed him a slightly smaller pair of pants, blue, and something that looked like a very thin eel.

“It’s a belt, it keeps your pants up,” Hunk laughed.  “See the loops?  Put the belt through the loops, then cinch it.”

Lance stumbled his way through putting on the pants, the belt, and even the shirt, which had four holes and was the most confusing.  How did he manage to put it on backwards twice?  Or inside-out, or whatever Hunk had complained about when he’d fixed it?

Lance felt like he was probably drowning a little bit in the clothes too, since he could barely tell where his arms were.  He didn’t look at his legs, because if he did, he might fall down.

Behind him he heard the sound of his old bones cracking, and he very determinedly did not look back.

“Doing okay back there?” Hunk asked.

“Yup,” Keith said, as another cracking sound echoed off the cliffs.  “Lance, you’re very tasty.  I think the venom adds flavor?”

Lance would’ve whimpered, if he could.

“Maybe you shouldn’t talk about that,” Hunk suggested, “Lance looks kind of green in the face.”

“Sure, sure.  Sorry, love, I’ll eat faster.”

Faster also meant louder, but it was over quickly enough.  When Lance looked back, he saw nothing more than blood-stained sand and tiny shreds of his fins.  Keith had washed off his face, so he more or less looked the same as normal, and it was easy enough to pretend it hadn’t happened.  If those sounds replayed in his nightmares, then that was no one’s business but Lance’s.

Lance took a second to collect the spines, shoving them into the round leather bag that Hunk had given him to serve as a makeshift quiver.

Keith flopped up on the beach, pulling himself fully out of the water.  “I guess it’s my turn now.”

He chugged the vial with his back to them both, making a face.  Lance didn’t envy him for the taste of it, and even Keith stiffened, groaning in pain.  Then the siren shrieked as his tail split in half, his human thighs thicker than scales could fit.  His earfins fell off in an equally disgusting fashion, the gore splattering on his shoulders as he shook his legs out of the flesh.

Even covered in blood, Keith was really beautiful, and when he stood up and turned around, he hastily covered his chest with his arms and scowled at the both of them for staring so blatantly.

Lance nodded at the water, implying for him to wash off the gore.   Keith took a quick swim to get it off, but the water was already very pink with blood, and it didn’t help much.  When he stepped back out, he shivered and curled in on himself.

“Let’s get you a shirt,” Hunk said, but Keith stared at them both with mild confusion.

Lance remembered that Keith had given up his hearing; he wouldn’t know what Hunk was saying.  Instead, Lance walked over to Keith, pulling at the fabric of his shirt with one hand and pointing at Hunk with his other.

Hunk shook a red fabric thing, much longer than the shirt Lance was wearing, in front of him, frowning, “This should do for a disguise.  I guess you can’t read lips?  Oh man, communication is going to be really difficult for the three of us from here on, for a lot of reasons.”

Keith hesitantly said, “I can’t tell what you’re saying.  Or what I’m saying?  This is weird, am I even talking?”

Lance and Hunk nodded in concert.

“Okay, okay,” He took the fabric from Hunk, and looked up at him, “How do I wear this?”

“Uh, Lance, listen up.  It’s buttoned in the back, so you’ll have to do up his buttons,” Hunk said, showing them the inside of the long shirt before tugging it up and over Keith’s head.  Lance took over from there, pushing Hunk’s hands away from his siren, thank you very much.

He smoothed the fabric down, watching it hit Keith’s knees.  On the back were a million tiny buttons, and he started at the top, moving his way down, tugging hard to get the fabric to squeeze around Keith’s body.  It was clearly made for Allura, instead of Hunk, and it barely fit.  Keith was chubbier as a human than as a siren; especially around his stomach, (Lance was going to ignore his chest altogether for Keith’s sake) but luckily the fabric held.

“Do human women not need to breathe?  Lance is trying to strangle me back there, and I can’t tell if that’s my kink or not,” Keith griped.

Lance blushed and fumbled a button.

Hunk pinched the bridge of his nose.  “Please don’t say stuff like that aloud when we go to meet Shay, okay?”

Keith stared at him, deaf to his complaint, and just shrugged, “We need to get something to write on, so I can read and Lance can write.  I don’t suppose humans have clay tablets?”

“They’ve got one thing better.  Paper,” Hunk said, breaking out into a grin, “But let’s go to Shay first.  She’ll have more fitting clothes for all of us.”

* * *

The walk back to the seaside village of Arus was relatively pain free.  Lance hated walking, and he hated how everything poked into his tender feet, and now rough the ground was.  And most of all, he hated being unable to complain about it.  Keith was far too self-sacrificing to complain, and Hunk was wearing boots; the only pair in the chest, and only really capable of fitting Hunk’s feet.

“You guys will love Shay,” he promised cheerfully.  She’s the nicest, sweetest person I've ever met.  Plus, she smells amazing.”

“I have no clue what you’re saying,” Keith deadpanned.  Lance sighed, patting him on the shoulder.

It would be a good good afternoon once Hunk delivered on this magic “paper” he kept talking about.

The village was up on the cliff and a little ways back, and nothing like what Lance was used to in the reef.  Instead of a living shelf of coral gently manipulated to grow into a shelter, healthy and hale and tended carefully, the humans made their homes out of dead wood, less brittle than driftwood and clearly cut down sharply, with flat edges and stones and pointed roofs.  Everything was so brown.

Lance had no clue how to feel about it.  He hung onto Hunk with one arm and Keith’s hand with the other.  They absolutely couldn't get separated—he had no clue how to bring them back together if they did.

The Balmera bakery, which Hunk identified immediately and pointed out to them, was a small building wedged between larger shops.  A sign dangled outside, but it's real advertisement was the scent that poured out.  It smelled heady and strange, and almost like smoke, but his human nose identified the smell as food, and Hunk seemed to be salivating already as he dragged them inside.

It looked more or less like a pearler’s under the sea.  A large wood counter separated the back of the room from the fore, and inside the pristine crystal glass were rows upon rows of brown stones in a variety of shapes and sizes.

“Shay?” Hunk called.

No one was manning the counter; so far they were alone.

Keith tapped on a sign, made of… a thin, stiff sort of fabric?  (Paper, Hunk later corrected.)

“Shay went out for lunch,” Keith said.  His eyes were wide as he took the room in, and Lance wanted to rib him, make fun of how cute he was.  He still hated that he couldn't talk, even though Keith wouldn't be able to hear him anyway.

“I guess she did.  We can't do much until she comes back, so I guess we’ll wait here for a bit.  That’s okay, I can explain to you both what some human things are, before we run into real trouble.”

Hunk went behind the counter and rifled around for a square of that stiff fabric, and a stylus.  The mantis shrimp beamed at the both of them, sitting them down at a table, and Lance relished in the wonders of being off of his feet.  Did humans always hurt just standing up like that?  What a miserable existence.

Hunk started to more or less jot down what he was saying on paper, explaining a whirlwind of things that Lance hadn’t even considered.  For example, the stones were actually bread, which was actually a kind of human food made of flour, which was like the human’s version of plankton.  And that was just one of the many things Hunk covered while they waited.

Keith groaned, “When is Shay going to be back?”

“Um, right now, actually,” A soft, gentle voice informed them.  The door swung open behind them, and a tall girl with wet curly black hair and skin a shade darker than Hunk’s walked in, her shirt long like Keith’s and another bit of fabric wrapped around her shoulders.  In her hands was a wet seal pelt, spotted grey and white.

“It’s always good to see you, Hunk!  ...and friends?” She beamed, folding up an animal pelt in her hands and quickly shoving it away behind the countertop before joining them at their table.

“This is Lance, and that’s Keith,” Hunk gestured.  He softened at the sight of her, his cheeks going slightly pink and his back less stiff.  Lance could see what Hunk meant in his entire body; Shay was his moon.  His whole body turned to her, wherever she was, and his smile never left his face when she looked at him.

“I’m Shay,” she said, drying off her hands and offering one to Keith.

He stared at it for a beat too long until Hunk said, “She wants you to shake her hand,” and pantomimed a shaking action.

Keith didn't take her hand.  Instead, he said, “You’re a selkie?  I thought Hunk said you were a human.”

“Of course she’s not a selkie,” Hunk said immediately, but Shay had already dropped her hand in shock, and taken a step back towards the counter, her eyes lingering towards the bread knife.

There was a brief moment of quiet, before Shay lunged for the knife and Hunk caught her by the wrist, tugging her back.  “Shay, say something?”  Hunk pleaded.

She trembled, trying to tug herself back closer to the bread knife, “You don’t have any proof, y-you can’t take me away.”

“W-what do you mean?  Shay, what…” Hunk turned to Keith, “What do you mean, she’s a selkie?!  How did you know?”

Keith couldn’t hear what Hunk was demanding of him, but he answered anyway once Lance scribbled the jist down for him.  He shrugged, “Shay looks like the other selkie I met and she had a seal pelt in her hands.  I assumed she was a selkie too.  Why are you staring at me like that?”

Y-you’ve met another selkie here?” Shay whispered in horror.

Lance shook his head quickly, waving his hands.  Keith too looked at how she reacted with a startled realization that perhaps that hadn’t been the most tactful thing to say.

“But we’d never tell anyone to take you away or anything,” Hunk promised, releasing her wrist.  “I didn’t even know Keith knew any other selkies.  Heck, I didn’t even know you were a selkie and I’ve known you for years!”

Shay trembled, taking another step closer to the knife, “I didn’t mean to lie to you, Hunk, it’s just…”

“No, no, I’m not mad!  None of us are mad, we’re good people,” Hunk said, holding his hands up in surrender, “Just surprised.  Can you confirm it for me?  Are you really a selkie?”

“Y-yes,” She said.

“That’s great, actually, because otherwise you would’ve had a much harder time believing what I was about to tell you.  We’re all seadwellers too!” Hunk beamed at her.  “We bargained with the Nereid to turn us human for a while, but I’m a mantis shrimp, and Lance is a lionfish, and Keith is a siren.”

Shay stared for a moment, and then snickered.  Her shoulders shook with relieved laughter.  “The one time my cover gets blown, and it’s to a bunch of fellow seadwellers!  I never would’ve suspected that!”

“Me neither!  I can’t believe I didn’t know you were a selkie.  We were both pretending to be human in front of each other…” Hunk had a starry-eyed look on his face that only reassured Lance of how far gone his friend was for this girl.  After all, they might’ve been a little askew as far as species go, but so were Keith and Lance, and if anyone would make it work, then Hunk would.

And now, Lance let himself think rather selfishly, Hunk didn’t have to choose between who he was and who he loved; Shay too belonged to the water, at least half the time.

Keith stared at the whole scene unknowingly, “Right?  Shay’s a selkie, right?  Did we just confirm that?”

Hunk wrote him down a “yes” real quickly.

“Sorry for busting your cover like that,” Keith said.  “I can’t tell if I’m thinking aloud or not.”

“Can you not hear me?” Shay asked.

“He can't,” Hunk confirmed, “Keith is deaf, and Lance is mute.  Courtesy of Allura; that’s how her spells work.  We’re working around it.”

Shay placed a soft hand on Keith’s shoulder, “No harm done.  Here, let me close the bakery for the day.  I get the feeling that this is more than a social visit?”

“You would be right,” Hunk agreed.

Keith groaned into his hands, “What even is happening?”

Lance banged his head on the table.  He too kept wanting to speak, and felt like he was constantly being cut off or interrupted.  Allura really did know where to hit hard with her spells and Hunk had said that Allura’s price was his most valued physical trait, but Lance had never considered how much he relied on his voice until now.  He used his words to express himself.  Without them, he felt like a blank slate, useless, unable to contribute to anything.  Even if he didn’t always know the right thing to say, he had the ability to put himself out there, to make himself heard, and in a family with so many siblings, being quiet meant being ignored.

He hated this.  Keith must too.  Lance imagined it would have to be for different reasons.  Keith… Keith valued understanding, instinct was how he operated.  He relied heavily on his senses, and hearing was definitely one of those.  He must feel just as useless, rendered unable to understand anyone around him.

Shay flipped the shop sign around and turned to them, taking a seat next to Hunk on the opposite side of the table from Lance and Keith.

“Should I start?  Or should you?” She asked.

“Go on ahead,” Hunk encouraged, and from how Keith’s leg was bouncing under the table, Lance got the feeling that Keith didn’t particularly care about Shay’s family history when he had rescuing Shiro on the brain.  He was only growing more impatient; he’d been on the edge of his seat just waiting for Shay to show up earlier.

Shay explained, as Lance took notes for Keith, that she was part of a whole family of selkies who’d migrated down south in order to hide.  King Zarkon of Drule had ordered anyone  _ “unnatural” _ to be caught and taken to his palace.  And the list of unnatural beings was a long one; any kind of seadweller was automatically unnatural, and even the landwalkers weren’t safe from being caught for his menagerie.  If someone showed signs of witchcraft, they would be taken from their communities and never seen from again.

When the northern cities became paranoid about Shay’s family, they turned southwards, where the water was too warm for them to be comfortable swimming in during the summer.  Arus was calm and quiet, and one of the less loyal villages under Drule’s power, so her family had felt safe enough here, for now.

She had thought something was up with Hunk, but the fear of being discovered again had led her to keep her secret.

Keith exposed one of his own; he knew there were selkies in the area because he’d tried to hypnotize one of them (“Based on that description, it must’ve been my brother Rax,” Shay helpfully provided) a year or two back, and it had gone poorly.  For one, Keith wasn't a good singer, and for two, selkies were immune to sirens in their seal form, and telling a selkie to join you in the water tended to get you up close and too personal with a leopard seal.  Keith had many regrets.

Shay confirmed that she was actually a spotted seal, and much cuter than her brother, and much less willing to eat a siren in her seal form.  Although she had made an offhand comment on the tastiness of shrimp, and Lance was tempted to sling an arm around Hunk shoulder in solemn comradery; the charming wonders of dating someone who had expressed a liking for the taste of your flesh.

It was a really good segway for Keith to interrupt her: “Shiro, my uncle, he was captured by humans four years ago, and now he’s in that palace with the rest of Zarkon’s unnatural beings.  We want to save him.” 

“That’s a noble cause,” Shay’s shoulders slumped.  “I know not if it can be done.  But I will give you all the help I am capable of providing.  And… and I think I know of two friends who’d be more than willing to help you even more.”

“What do you mean?” Hunk asked.

She nibbled on her bottom lip, “There are two siblings in Arus with a similar quest as yours.  I don’t know what supplies they might have, but they have been working on breaking into the palace for months now.  You could join your efforts with them.”

“That’s more than we could’ve ever hoped for,” Hunk reassured her, taking her hand in his.  Her hazel eyes met his brown ones, and for a moment, Lance thought he could visibly see the love in the air.  He wanted to hum a romantic tune, to nudge his friend with his foot and tease him about his obvious crush.  Instead, he was stuck grinding his teeth.

Keith leaned against him, soft and heavy and reassuring.  Lance almost turned to stare at him, wanting to ask why, but there was something in the nonchalant way he’d made his motion that Lance knew exactly what Keith had intended.  Calm down, Keith’s steady warmth said.   _I’m here_ , it said, _we’ll be alright_.

Lance leaned back against him a little, letting his cheek press to the crown of Keith’s dark hair.

“Here, let me get you two lovebirds some suitable clothes,” Shay said with a smile.  “Then we can go find the Gundersons.”

Shay gave Keith a pair of breeches to go under his long shirt, and a thick sweater to cover his bare shoulders, explaining what each and every piece of fabric was.  Lance had trouble looking away; something about clothes on Keith just made him that much more alluring, but it also rang to Lance as rather childish.  The only seadwellers he knew of who bothered with clothes were children (And Allura, but the Nereid had always been a strange exception to the rule) so in a way, seeing Keith all bundled up make him look really, really young.  Especially once Shay had shoved the sweater over his shirt and only the very tips of his fingers popped out.

Lance was promptly shooed away before Keith actually slipped on his breeches by Hunk, who gave him a stern look.  “You could maybe  _ not _ look at him like you’re dying of thirst and he’s the only glass of water for miles, you know, at least in front of Shay and I?”

_ “I can't help it,”  _ Lance scribbled down, before,taking the new pair of pants from Hunk and trying not to fall over as he put them on.   With one leg secured, he continued writing:  _ “He’s so pretty, and Shay gave him a frilly thing to wear under his shirt—” _

“It's called a dress, Lance,” Hunk said before he finished writing his sentence.

_ “—and now I can't stop thinking about what he’s hiding under there!” L _ ance tossed the pen down with a flourish, tugging his other pants leg up over his leg as he leaned heavily on Hunk.

“Take your hormones and like, turn them down a notch,” Hunk wrinkled his nose, “Or twelve.”

Lance stuck his tongue out at him.  Hunk gave him a much tighter fitting shirt, and then a vest over that, with a lot of buttons (double-breasted, Hunk informed him later) that he only barely managed to fumble together.

“Rax says that he found the Gundersons in the library,” Shay said, ducking her head in briefly.  “Also, Lance, you might want to go save your mate from him.  He remembers Keith too, as it turns out.”

Lance cracked a grin, heading down the stairs to find Keith blushing an unhealthy amount with Rax leaning in just a little bit too close for comfort.  He was making some kind of screeching noise and scoffing, and Keith just looked murderous.

“I remember the next part of the song very clearly, it went like this,” Rax crinkled his nose like it was beneath him to be so much speaking to Keith, and made a croaking noise to imitate Keith’s voice.  “You’re lucky that a siren’s song is hypnotic.  You’d never woo someone with that otherwise.  I'm surprised that you aren't starving to death.”

“I can't hear what you’re saying but I know you’re mocking me,” Keith snapped, looking down at whatever Rax had previously written on the notepad.

Lance swept in, grabbing Keith by the waist and tugging him under his arm as he got a glance of the notepad.

Rax had written down,  _ “You’re the idiot that tried to hypnotize me with the worst siren’s song I've ever heard.” _

Keith looked about two seconds from clocking Rax in the face, so Lance instead took the notepad and quickly scribbled down, _ “You’re just jealous because you’re single and ugly.” _

Keith laughed, and Rax soured.  “You can't tell me his singing seduced  _ you _ .”

It hadn’t, since Lance had never heard it before.  He was actually a little disappointed about that, because Lance loved singing and he wanted Keith to sing  _ with _ him one day, but it made sense that he hadn’t.  Sirens rarely hypnotized merfolk because their voices were only hypnotic above the water… Lance abruptly realized that Allura had been well aware of the weapon she was leaving Keith with when she had took his hearing instead.

He still flipped Rax off though, just as Hunk and Shay descended the stairs.

“Rax, don't antagonize our friends!” Shay scolded, heading immediately towards the door, “We’re heading out to the library now, all of us.”

Hunk patted Keith on the back, “Ignore him.  I'm sure your singing is really nice.”

_ “Hunk says your singing is probably fine.  I agree but I've never heard you sing,” _ Lance scribbled down.

Keith sighed, “I don't sing anymore.  I'm not good at it.  I can't carry a tune, so it isn't good for hypnosis.  I wasn't sure how to hunt yet when I tried to hypnotize Rax.  It was right after Shiro… so I was on my own.  I didn't know what I was doing so my shoal-mate Plaxum tried to teach me how to sing and... I gave up on that method pretty quickly.”

_ “We could use that when we sneak into the palace,” _ wrote Lance, who was all for hypnosis being their secret weapon if something went belly-up.

Keith looked at him, “I don't know if it still even works, as a human.  And I think I’ll be even less able to carry a tune now.”

“Still a possibility!” Hunk beamed, “We can test it out on Rax again.  He's such a bitter jerk.”

“I’d disagree with you but my brother is who he is,” Shay seconded with a helpless smile, pushing upon the library door and letting them all in.  “Please be very quiet in here.”

Lance flashed her an ironic thumbs-up.  He couldn't make noise if he wanted to.

They climbed up more stairs (Lance’s new legs were not fond of stairs) and into the back stacks, until Shay came up to two hooded figures in black, buried in books.

“Rax told me I might find you two here,” She sighed, grabbing both of the siblings’ attention.

The smaller one stood up and scowled, “Here to tell us to just save ourselves and leave our father to die like the rest of this damn village?”

“Here to bring you assistance,” Shay corrected, “Lance, Keith, and Hunk all have a similar goal as you.  Their friend is captured too.”

They peered at the three seadwellers and frowned, “Are you  _ sure _ you brought us assistance?”

“Yes,” Shay snapped, not having the small fellow’s attitude at all.  “Jeremiah, Pidge, come with us.  They’re breaking into that palace with or without you, but you might as well hear them out, at least.”

The look Hunk was giving Shay was absolutely worse than Lance’s earlier thirsty face, he swore it.  Hunk gave her eyes that said he believed she shat baby dolphins and pearls, and it was absolutely more gushy than Lance had ever been towards Keith.

He was suddenly abruptly aware of how Keith had their fingers tangled together, their sides pressed up against one another, and Lance reluctantly admitted that he had probably made that face about Keith at least once before.  Or more than once.  Or like, earlier today, when he’d woke up and Keith’s head was squished up against his chest, their tails intertwined.

“Pidge, they could help,” Jeremiah, the taller one whose hood had yet to drop, said.  “Don't you want Dad back?”

“Stop trying to guilt me!” Pidge snapped.  They tied their cloak tighter around themselves and offered their hand to their brother.  “This better be worth it.”

* * *

They relocated back to the bakery, and it was in there that the Gunderson siblings finally removed their cloaks and hoods, revealing their faces.

Pidge had a soft face, with a jawline much like Keith’s but with large round eyes, a crooked nose, and far more freckles.  They looked to be about 17 years old, and their long hair tumbled down their shoulders in tangled matted chunks.  Lance got the feeling that they’d been living on the streets—their hair wasn't exactly salvageable and neither were the rags they had on underneath, both two different colors of worn grey in a fashion that might've once been a dress.

Jeremiah on the other hand had short, unruly hair, in the same copper wire color.  His glasses were cracked in the frames, and his hazel eyes darted around skittishly.  He looked a lot like his sibling, except for where it looked like blue-green scales had started to sprout from his cheekbone, his eye sunken with dark bags.

“I’m sorry but I’ll have to leave you all to it,” Shay apologized, “Rax and I can't risk being any more involved than we already are.  I am going to have to reopen the Bakery tomorrow and pretend as if nothing is amiss, and if I am to do that, I need to start baking.”

“We understand, Shay,” Hunk promised, squeezing her hand.  “You’ve already helped us way more than we’d thought possible.”

Lance saw how her gold eyes twinkled, and he felt something warm and reassuring bloom within him.  She loves him back, he thought eagerly.  It was all too clear in her gentle smiles.  If she was Hunk’s moon, then he was her sunshine.  His every smile lit up her every feature; she shined under his attention.

Lance wanted to trill teasingly at him, but he didn't have the vocal cords or the gills to do it.  He made do with a very exaggerated wink in Hunk’s direction as he sat back down with them.

“So much for  _ we _ ,” Pidge huffed.

“Don't be so rude,” Jeremiah scolded.  It was Jeremiah who turned them and said, “So I guess you want to know our story.”

“If you don't mind,” Hunk said, sliding over to Lance a blank notebook so he could play scribe for Keith.

The older brother’s shoulders relaxed as he began, “My name is not actually Jeremiah Gunderson.  It's actually Matthew Holt.  Feel free to call me Matt; it’d be a relief after hearing Jeremiah for months.”

“My birth name is Katherine Holt, but I prefer Pidge.  Don't bother changing it,” Pidge added.

Lance made sure to fill in that change to Keith.

“We were raised inland by our mother for most of our childhood, but we started realizing we weren't quite normal when the town flooded—and we grew gills instead of drowning,” Matt laughed, his eyes tired, “Our mother told us that our father was a merman, and that we were something in between human and merfolk.  We jokingly call ourselves merkin; half-merfolk, half something else, but I've never heard of anyone else like us.”

Keith glanced over the notes, before asking, “Were… were there complications with your hatching?”

Pidge snorted, “Hatching?!”

“What Pidge means to say is, we were born.  Humans don't hatch.  In general, from what my studies into our hybrid species can tell, with a merman as the father, the merkin develop primarily like the mother’s species.  Lemme guess, the bun you’ve got in the oven isn't wholly human?”

“It's wholly non-human,” Hunk shook his head, answering for Keith, “None of us are actually human.  We’ve been enchanted to be so by the sea witch, but we’ll turn back to being seadwellers soon enough.  Puts this mission on something of a time frame, so we don't really have time to get off topic.  Sorry, Keith.”

“Right…” Matt cleared his throat, before continuing, “Our father agreed to meet up with us regularly, once we learned about him.  We got to know him over the course of 7 years, until Zarkon caught on to the presence of unnaturals in the area.  He caught my father and I swimming offshore, and we were both taken to the palace and experimented on.  These scales were grafted into my skin to try and force me to change my legs into a tail… they span much more than just my cheekbone.”

Lance could literally see Keith fall apart in front of him, trembling as he must've imagined Shiro in Matt’s place,  _ still _ in Matt’s place.  If he was willing to do something like that to his own kind… 

“Pidge rescued me after a year in his captivity, but I don't know where they took our father.  We haven't been able to use Pidge’s disguise trick to sneak back in, as they've drastically increased security since.  They’re still looking for Matt and Katie Holt, so we’ve taken up the names Jeremiah and Pidge to hide from Zarkon as we travelled to Arus to hide and plan,” Matt explained.  “Not that we’ve gotten very far yet.  There's no way to sneak into the castle unless you have the background screening necessary for the servants’ entrance, or you burst through the front entrance.”

Lance took Allura’s key and slid it over on the table.

Pidge stared at it intensely, picking it up in their palms to stare closer.

Lance wrote, “ _ The Nereid gave us this.  It's a key to the back door.” _

“There is no back door,” Pidge said, “Not on the map.”

“There is,” Matt took a deep, wondrous breath. “We may need to do a little adventure in the Olkari forest to sneak around behind unseen to find that backdoor, because it’s not for Zarkon’s palace.  It’s got to be for the Altean one.  The two are supposedly still connected through their underground tunnels, even if Zarkon sealed off most of the old structure, and this key is likely for that palace instead.  If we can just break into that underground laboratory through these tunnels then—!”

At this, Lance’s dictation must’ve gotten sloppy, because Keith made a frustrated noise.  “What do you mean, two palaces?”

Hunk pitched in here, “I actually know a thing or two about it.  Allura asked me to look into it once.  The old palace was built for the Altean Queendom, but the current one is ruled by Zarkon of Drule.  When his great great great grandfather defeated the last princess and banished her from her country forever, they left most of that palace for the forest to reclaim, and built a new one out of the ruins, utilizing the same throne room, dining hall, kitchens... and dungeons, like Matt said.”

Apparently Lance’s notes made more sense now, because Keith nodded.

“I tried to break in through the Altean palace once, but it was impossible,” Pidge bounced in their seat, capturing Lance’s eyes and keeping them as they explained excitedly, “All the windows and doors are tightly locked, and I’ve never been able to break the locks on my own.  If you do have a key, then you’d be the first person in that palace for over a thousand years!  Zarkon has no reason to guard those entrances, we’d be able to sneak in and out of Zarkon’s palace easily.”

_ “But we’re aiming for the dungeons, right?” _ Lance wrote.

“Yes.  The dungeons are where Zarkon keeps his cabinet of curiosities.  Or better phrased, his collection of unnaturals,” Matt growled. “My father and I were one of at least one hundred innocent people.”

“Did you ever meet any sirens?  Black and white with large koi fish fins?” Keith asked desperately, staring intently at the notebook rather than making eye contact.

“I was dunked in a tank with… with a siren once,” Matt admitted, “As a last ditch kind of effort to use fear to turn me.  I almost died; the siren started by cutting off my air supply from my gills, and he held me down, screeching ‘I want blood’ but the druids, the ones who experiment on us down there, they’d shock his whole tank with electricity when he did something they didn’t like.  If this siren was the Shiro you mentioned, then he was barely there in his mind when I met him.”

Keith made a noise so broken and shattered that Lance gave up on his note taking so he could hold Keith’s head against his neck, letting him choke and sob wordlessly against Lance’s skin.

Matt swallowed thickly, “It could have been a show… He didn’t look like he wanted to be doing what he was.  And it looked like he knew if they shocked him, they’d take me out of his tank.  He could’ve been trying to protect me from… from himself.”

Hunk wrote that down, and proffered the information to Keith, who read it with blurry eyes.  Lance didn’t let go of him quite yet, even when Keith nodded, and swallowed down that hopeless panic.

“That must be him,” Hunk said instead.  “So we sneak into the dungeons via the old palace, and then we sneak Shiro and your father back out the same way.”

“That's essentially the idea,” Matt agreed.  “We can head out tomorrow even.”

Keith let out a relieved sigh, his head still tucked into Lance’s neck, and Lance closed his eyes briefly.  The hope they had right now was so fragile.  Their plan sounded simple enough that somehow he doubted it would work.  There were too many variables they hadn’t made contingency plans for.

Lance ignored the bubble of nervousness building in his gut.

* * *

Shay escorted them upstairs for the night.  She offered her spare room to Keith and Lance, and her own bedroom to Hunk, while she herself took up in Rax’s room.  Lance had teased Hunk about his sleeping arrangements, only to be rewarded with a really excessive red blush and stuttering.

Ah, good ol’ Hunk.

Keith had been quiet since they had learned what they had about Shiro, but he’d kept himself together fairly well.  Even now, he was undressing silently, his mouth set in a stubborn line.

When he’d gotten everything off but his dress, Lance tucked up behind him and kissed at his bare neck.  He felt Keith relax against him as he unbuttoned each button, exposing Keith’s flawless back inch by inch, before his garment fell to the floor in a heap.

“Kiss me,” Keith demanded, tugging at Lance’s shirt until it was up and off over his head and his lover had slotted their mouths together, tugging them close, skin to skin.

Lance devoured his mouth, because he couldn’t say no.  He wanted the comfort of Keith against him, the warmth and weight of him, especially in this strange new form.  They tumbled back onto the bed, their kisses helplessly parted so they could breathe.  It was impossible for them to kiss very long in these forms, their mouths and their noses making it difficult to breathe and kiss at the same time, but Lance was determined.

He ended up straddling Keith, his hands cupping that pretty face as he tried to talk to his mate entirely without words.  Keith parted for him, his thighs falling open and his hands tangled in Lance’s hair.

“Make me forget all this for just one moment,” Keith whispered into Lance’s mouth.  “Remind me that it’ll all be alright.”

Lance stroked up between Keith’s legs, silent but desperate to tell Keith how much he loved him, how much everything would be alright, trying to write out his every thought through his hands, to say what he wanted to say through his body.

As he slid down the siren’s form, Keith breathed out, his hands holding his belly, the round bump only barely noticeable.  His legs were still parted for Lance, who curiously explored this new territory, helplessly fascinated.

He’d never seen a human quite like this.  They always wore clothing to hide themselves from his eyes, even when they swam in the water.  Being able to touch, above the water; it was strange to see something so familiar and yet to alien to him.

Lance bit at the pale, bare skin at the junction of Keith’s knee and his thigh, nipping with his teeth just hard enough to make Keith buck and mewl, his free leg wrapping around Lance’s back.  Those thighs were thick and warm around him, and he soothed over his bite with his tongue as he sucked at them, leaving a pink bruise behind in the shape of his mouth.  Humans bruised so easily; their blood flushed their skin impossibly quickly.  Lance wanted to bite until he’d marked Keith as irrevocably  _ his _ .

There was something unabashed about the noises Keith was making right now.  He only vaguely knew how loud he was being, and the little noises that usually embarrassed him spilt out his petal pink lips like gushing steam from a deep sea vent.  Lance couldn’t respond with his own array of noises, but he would instead seek to make Keith twice as loud; loud enough for the both of them.

He traveled to the folds in-between Keith’s new legs, tentatively placing his mouth over that wet, slick place and licking up its length.  It had a much more distinct taste now, like metal and salt, like how Keith smelled but concentrated, like the very essence of him, and Lance dove for more, his tongue circling the nub at the top as he sucked.

Keith whimpered, his hips grinding up, and Lance repeated the motion.  He felt Keith’s fingers seek out his own, and he tangled them together with his own, squeezing.  Just like how he could only trust his body to do his talking, so did Keith.

Using the pad of his thumb, he circled Keith’s entrance and pressed in, feeling how easy the flesh gave way and let him slip inside.  Keith made a noise, less pleasured and more alarmed, and Lance carefully removed his thumb, replacing it with his index finger slowly.  When he crooked his finger, spreading Keith open just that tiny bit more, he keened, high pitched and desperate.

Lance laughed silently, biting into the meat of Keith’s thigh again as he began to thrust his finger in and out, searching for that spot that he’d found earlier.  When Keith felt looser, wetter, he slipped in his middle finger too.

“L-Lance,  _ please just fuck me already _ !” Keith begged, squirming at the feeling of Lance’s fingers teasing him, working him open.

Lance shimmied out of his pants, still somewhat weirded out about how strange his dick was—stiff, hard and unmoving, and thick at the head.  It didn't have ridges on the sides, and he just felt how it curved and smooth and hot in his palm.  He had no idea what to do with it.  

At least Keith had remained more or less the same, minus a few parts.

“Come on,” Keith tried to coax, but his voice wasn't obeying him again, and it sounded far more like a croak than Lance was sure he intended.  But it worked anyway; Lance felt the pressure and nervousness fade from him again.  This was Keith; beautiful and precious and silly and soft, and they’d figure this out together.

Keith pulled him back down with one arm, kissing him hard, and Lance grabbed ahold of the other of Keith’s legs and tugged it up around his waist.  His cock brushed up against Keith’s bare skin and Lance moaned silently into the siren’s mouth, his hips grinding down.  He slid his dick against Keith’s cunt, and remembering Keith’s reaction to his button being sucked on, Lance gambled and guiding himself with his hand to rub Keith’s engorged clit with the head of his cock.  His own slit, much more obvious in this form and dripping precum all over Keith, lined up with that nub and for one glorious second the both of them forgot how to breathe.

Everything was so  _ hot _ ; Lance felt like he was boiling under his skin as he lined himself up again.  He’d never felt a fever like this before, never felt his blood  _ burn _ with desire.  Was this what sex was always like for Keith—for any warm blooded creature?

“Please, Lance, I  _ need you _ ,” Keith said, his voice cracking and breathless.

Lance pushed himself inside with one long, steady stroke, stilling once he bottomed out.  Keith felt so good—it was killing Lance to not be able to say anything.  Instead he felt his eyes water as he buried his head against Keith’s neck, kissing gently at his neck while they both took a moment to adjust.  And then Keith rolled his hips, and they both inhaled desperate little breaths.  Keith’s legs spasmed, his heel coming to rest against the small of Lance's back, but he kept up his tiny movements, taking initiative.

Might as well make it easier for him, Lance thought, tracing the line of Keith’s jaw with one hand and squeezing Keith’s fingers in the other.  And then Lance slid out and rolled them over, before pushing right back in.  Keith’s chest heaved with a tiny choked off breath, and he used Lance’s hand to steady himself as he raised his hips, and dropped back down with a moan.  

He was still so tight, so wet, Lance felt like he was drowning in pleasure.  It was all he could do to stay still, to not let the fire in his veins erupt out.  Keith was making it hard for him to hold on, writhing against Lance in the hottest way as he fucked himself on Lance’s cock.

Each tiny motion of Keith’s made Lance gasp and shudder, his hips starting to move against his will as he bucked up into that delicious tight heat.

Lance only had a moment to squeeze his hands in warning as he spilled himself deep inside Keith.

Keith stilled, a laugh spilling from his lips, “You always come easy.”

Lance would've said something indignant about that, or maybe be sweet and tell Keith it was because he was just really really hot, but he couldn't really do either.  He lifted Keith up off his dick by those pretty hips, pulling him back up to his mouth.  He buried his nose against Keith’s sweaty skin, inhaling for a brief moment the addicting scent, before he sucked his clit back into his mouth and massaged it until Keith doubled over, panting as he whined helplessly.  His orgasm was just a tensing of muscles; ones that released as Keith turned to sated putty in his hands.

The siren-turned-human sat up after he caught his breath, shuffling so they were lying side by side.  Lance tried to say something, his mouth gaping as nothing came out.

Before he could get too frustrated, Keith  cupped his face in both hands, kissing him softly.  His eyes said everything Lance couldn't, and Lance kissed back, wrapping Keith up in his arms.

“I love you,” He whispered, so quiet that Lance almost thought it was Keith who had his voice taken away.

But Keith didn’t say anything else; he just grabbed the comforter and tugged it up over them both, before curling into the curves of Lance’s body and letting his eyes drift closed.

Lance gently laid his hand on Keith’s stomach.  As always, Keith’s skin was warm, and soft, and he still felt intimately familiar with him.  Even his chest, big and plush now, felt familiar, although Lance paid Keith’s wishes respect and refrained from touching it.

Keith was probably sleeping right now, Lance thought, listening to his steady breaths through his nose.  It was weird to hear him breathe, when Lance was used to the relatively silent sucking and fluttering of gills, but it was also soothing to know he wasn’t alone in this strange world above the waves.

There hadn't been much time to think.  And now that he could slow down, his thoughts were a whirlpool of confusion.

He didn’t know what to think of their mission.  Shay might’ve been kind enough to lend them her spare room for the night, but they still had a several hours long trip on foot (“Much slower than swimming,” Shay had admitted to their dismay) before they even reached the royal palace tomorrow with the Holt siblings.  And that ignored the whole difficulty of sneaking into the palace in the first place.  Allura had gifted them a ‘backdoor key’ but Lance had no clue where it went.  And while Keith had insisted that they break Shiro and Samuel Holt out immediately, they only had a charm to make him invisible, not Samuel, and how were three wobbly legged seadwellers and two humans supposed to carry two full-grown seadwellers, in who knows what condition, out of the palace even if one of them was invisible?

Keith was determined.  Lance respected that, but… they were already disadvantaged as it were, being somewhere so unfamiliar, on legs that he barely understood how to work, and he almost didn’t even want to rescue Shiro, when he knew nothing about the older siren, and he had no allegiance to the Holts.

What if Shiro agreed with the shoal, agreed that his nephew should be killed for choosing a merman over his own kind?  What if Shiro was so ravenously hungry that he just ate one of them on sight, before Keith could stop him?  What if Shiro reminded Keith that he missed his home, and Keith just left him afterwards?

Lance knew his fears were improbable, that Keith had promised again and again that he wanted to be Lance’s mate, and that it was Lance who’d kept putting it off, afraid of trapping himself in a life-long commitment that he wanted to especially make sure they both wanted, but… but now he regretted more than ever for waiting.

If he’d mated Keith, then by law, he could kill Shiro if he touched a hair on Keith’s beautiful head.  And if he’d mated Keith, Keith could kill Shiro if he touched a hair on Lance’s (beautiful) head.  

Lance snorted, tucking his worried smile against the dry hair on the crown of Keith’s head.  Maybe as soon as they rescued Shiro, he’d ask Keith to finish the ceremony with him.  Especially now that he could visibly see how egg-heavy Keith was.  It wouldn’t be too long before he really would have to be concerned about him hunting alone, about merfolk trying to retaliate against the defenseless siren, and Lance wanted the capability to protect him more than anything.

And this whole venture was all to protect him.  If Keith wouldn't stop, then the most Lance could do was support him.  And Lance didn't want Keith to stop; he wanted Keith to be happy and fight for his own ideals and his own family.  

So regardless of how Shiro reacted, Lance would do everything in his power to keep his mate safe.

He gently laid a kiss to Keith’s hair, closing his eyes and letting the siren’s steady breaths, like the pull and crash of waves on the shore, lull him to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't have a date for the next chapter, but hopefully two updates in quick succession should've lessened that blow! It'll probably be about a month, at least. I'm really sorry about that.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this took so long to get out!! My life turned a bit crazy against my will,,, but hopefully next chapter will be less of a wait? Anyway thanks to @paladincoolcats for being my beta!

The sun is a different beast above the waves, Keith thought as he peered out into the much too bright room, trying to remember where he even was.

He was human, he thought, looking down at his front and grimacing.  His belly stuck out like an egg-heavy mermaid’s, and his chest… he didn’t want to think about his chest.

Lance was spread out across the bed like a starfish, his limbs scattered.  One had been thrown over Keith’s side, but Keith’s sitting up had made it flop to the side as Lance rolled onto his back.

The world was silent, and Keith didn’t know why he hated that so much.  After all, he’d never thought himself big on noise, but… but Lance was a loud person.  His voice, in all it’s pitches and squawks, reverberated through the water and made him glow.  Something about not being able to hear Lance made the merman feel unreal, like some illusion conjured up to deceive Keith.

And that wasn’t all.  He couldn’t sense when strangers were approaching, he couldn’t feel their movements in the water—he was effectively unaware of his surroundings.  And every time someone talked, he felt… he felt like he had no hope in ever understanding, even with Lance’s handwriting or the visual clues he got from others.

The only reason he could really even tell he was talking was that he could feel it, physically, in his throat.  Whether anything was at the right pitch or not was impossible to tell, and he knew sometimes from the winces on Lance and Hunk’s faces that he’d messed up a word, and they were too kind to ask him to repeat it.

Keith made a noise, impossible to tell what kind, and buried back down into Lance’s warmth.  There was something about this human body that found that warmth impossibly attractive, but Keith was uncomfortable with it.  Underwater, Lance didn’t burn hot; Lance’s skin was always cool to his touch.  Some part of him felt fear, like it had really been Lance he’d eaten back on the beach, and this person was some kind of imposter, a stranger wearing the face of the person he loved.

He wanted them both out of these bodies and back in the damn water already, before he lost his mind.

Lance woke up slowly, his mouth opening and gaping like a fish, before snapping shut.  Keith knew he was probably hoping to say good morning, so Keith did so instead.  Or tried to, at least.

Judging by Lance’s creeping, sunrise smile, he’d managed it.

Lance tugged at his arm, pulling him up off the bed, and the two of them started the process of getting ready for the day.  Humans wore so much; Keith preferred to eat merfolk honestly, because they came with less wrapping, even if humans tended to taste better, in his opinion.

Keith slid into a different dress today, still extremely frustrated with how Lance got to wear pants and a shirt, but he couldn’t.  Although he didn’t exactly blame Shay for her lack of extra men’s clothing in her home for her unexpected guests, and Shay’s dresses were made of much thicker fabric than the flimsy thing he started out with.  If he put on two of the brown ones, and layered them, then the bump of his stomach and the bump of his chest cancelled each other out, and he looked really fat instead of female.  Keith could live with that.

Shay poked her head in.  She must’ve been saying something, but Keith had no choice but to stare blankly at her.  Lance nodded, leaning in to press a kiss to his cheek, before he left down the hall.

Well, Keith thought as he bit his bottom lip, he was now alone with the strange selkie.  Thanks Lance, for your support and your explanation.

Shay was still talking, but at least now she had a sheet of paper that she was writing on.  Thank Triton for small mercies.

“ _ I have something for your chest, if you need,”  _ she wrote.

Need?  Keith definitely didn’t need anything for it.  He should just suck it up; why did it matter how he looked?  It shouldn’t matter, it shouldn’t have to be something that everyone made such a big deal out of.  But to his shame, it was.  It was important, and a big deal, and he really, really wanted something for his chest, because he hated it.  He hated how he looked.  He hated how Lance and Hunk and even Shay were swimming on sea urchins around him because of how delicate his damn feelings about this were.

He nodded, not trusting his voice.

She brought out a vest type garment, and helped him secure it tightly around his chest.  Again with the suffocating feeling, like the breath was being squeezed out of his lungs, but now when he looked down, his stomach stuck out far further than his chest, and the lay of the two thick dresses disguised even that, settling around him loosely.

Shay even handed him a pair of loose breeches, cut short at the calf of his leg so that they’d hide under the skirts, but wonderful in their own way.

Once he’d fully gotten dressed, she handed him a comb wordlessly.  The look on her face told him what he already knew; his hair was one of the seven catastrophes of the world.  Especially since hers was so neat, kinky and dark brown, braided back in thick ropes and secured with a copper pin in a bun at the back of her head.

He struggled to get it to lay flat, but the thick mess stayed a disaster, and he moved on to the shoes, letting Shay teach him how to lace them up through example, before heading off downstairs after her.

A stranger she might be, but Keith could tell she was kind, and he hadn’t expected her to be.  Not to them.

Lance waved to him from his seat at the bakery counter, his cheeks stuffed full with bread.

Keith smiled and sat down next to him, trying to keep from shuddering at the feel of Lance’s bare arm against his.  Warm, dry, smooth skin.  Why was Lance so damn warm in this form?  Like a fever dream.  Keith wanted the cold relief of his mate’s skin back.

Lance nudged the notepad in his direction, sending him the note,  _ “Eat something.  Humans need food three times a day.” _

Keith frowned, “But I ate you yesterday, didn’t I?”

Hunk made a choking face into his glass.

That kind of meat should’ve lasted him for a whole week before he’d finish digesting it and need to eat; how voracious were humans that they needed to eat that much three times a day?

Lance stuck his tongue out, and wrote,  _ “Don’t risk it.  Eat anyway.  There’s eggs, bread, bacon.” _

“What’s bacon?” Keith said, only to have a delicious smelling slice of something hot and sizzling shoved in front of his face by Hunk who was beaming at him.

He took it and nibbled, his fingers slightly singed by the heat, but as soon as the taste of the chewy meat entered his mouth, he leaned back and moaned.  Keith ate the rest in one bite, leaning happily on Lance’s shoulder.  

Bacon is good.  Bacon is really good.  

It tasted like a hot, salty human, dragged under the waves and roasted in a deep sea vent, but in tiny delicious doses, and Keith grabbed a whole plate of it, digging in.

Lance laughed and scribbled down,  _ “I don’t like it but I’m glad you do.” _

“More for me,” Keith did his best to keep his voice down, trying to keep the conversation between the two of them.  He didn’t know how loudly he was even talking though.  “What else?”

Shay slid him a glass of something white and liquid, which he guessed was milk.

Keith vaguely knew he must've drunk milk at some point in his life.  After all, sirens were warm blooded and half mammal; like whales, dolphins, and seals, sirens weaned their young on milk until their two sets of teeth grew in.  Then they shared their parents’ prey until they felt ready to hunt on their own.  It seemed odd to have milk served to him in a glass as an adult, but it was worth a try. 

Taking a sip, he found he didn't quite know how to describe it.  It sunk heavy and sick in his stomach.

Human food was strange.

Lance only ate bread for the whole meal, even when Keith pushed bacon his way.  His mate not eating any meat sent alarm bells off in Keith’s mind, but it wasn't fish—maybe that mattered to Lance? Mermaids could be weird about what they ate.  For instance; plants.  Keith didn't really get the allure.

Keith had no way of asking and Lance had no way of answering, and they were already wasting all of Shay’s ink on their notes.

_“Matt and Pidge are going to meet us soon,”_ Lance wrote, _“Then we’ll travel to the palace.”_

Keith nodded.  The sooner the Holts arrived, the sooner they could get going, and he hated being stuck just waiting here.  Even with the bacon.

His stomach gurgled angrily.  If it was nerves or stress, it was definitely not happy that he just ate.

The morning passed slowly; Hunk and Shay chattered and went off on their own, and Keith was left alone with Lance, and they both stared awkwardly and guiltily at each other, silently. 

Whatever conversation they’d nervously would've had via paper was put to an end as Keith clasped Lance’s fingers in his own, and kept him from writing a single thing.  Some part of his brain wasn't convinced yet that Lance was real.  But his fingers felt solid, and his eyes were the blue of the ocean that they both loved, and Keith would make do with that until they could go back home.

* * *

Lance had been happily cuddling with Keith, when the latter shot up out of his arms and ran off.

He heard cursing and the sound of a door slamming.  Lance winced. 

“Is he okay?” Hunk asked.

“He’s clearly going into labor,” Rax sneered as he walked in.

Lance dropped the notebook from his palms and shot to his feet.  There was no fucking way, right?

He felt faint.  He wanted to go and barge in and make absolutely sure that wasn't the case.  Keith couldn't… he was human right now!  What would even happen?

“That's impossible!” Shay smacked her brother with a dish towel.  “He’s only 3 months along, right?”

Lance breathed through his panic as he counted back the moon cycle and the tides, and then wrote,  _ “4.” _

“Still impossible!” Shay said, “Humans give birth at 9 months.  I don't know what it is for sirens, but it's gotta be longer than 4 months!”

Lance didn't know exactly either.  Keith and he hadn't really talked too much about it, besides “eventually” they would have to sit down and talk about it.

“Maybe he ate something bad?” Hunk said, ever the source of logic.

“Shame,” Rax said, shoving past Shay, “It’d be nice hearing that siren scream more.”

Lance grabbed Rax’s wrist, twisted it sharp behind his back, and squeezed until the bones creaked under his skin.  Rax yelped, yanking, but Lance didn't let up.  He’d have growled, have said something, but thankfully he didn't have to.

Hunk said it for him, “Don't talk about Keith like that.”

“Sirens are dangerous, Shay,” Rax said, his voice harsh, “We shouldn't be helping these seadwellers.  Even if one of them wasn't a monster, if Zarkon catches on that we helped them—”

“He won't,” Hunk said quickly.  “We’d never tell him anything about you two.”

“None of this is safe.  Or smart.  I hope you remember that before you get us imprisoned too, baby sister,” Rax yanked his arm out of Lance’s grip, snarling.  He slammed the bakery door behind him as he stomped out.

“He’s gonna be trouble,” Hunk said under his breath.

Shay sighed, “I’m sorry, I don't know why he’s being so contrary.  He’s never been kind, but usually he lets me do as I please without a word in edgewise.”

Hunk placed a big hand on her shoulder, causing her to turn her big doe-eyes up at him and a smile to creep on her face.

Keith slammed the bathroom door open, his expression of pure fury and agony.  “I am never.  Drinking milk.  Again.”

“Oh dear,” Shay held back a giggle, “You must be lactose-intolerant then?”

At Keith and Lance’s looks of confusion, Shay elaborated, “Dairy makes you sick.  You can't eat it.”

Lance relayed that to Keith, who buried his head in the crook of the merman’s neck and whined, loud and miserable.  Lance ran his fingers through Keith’s hair, nuzzling him back instead of writing words.

The door swung open just then to both the Holt siblings, Pidge without a cloak and Matt with his securely fastened and the hood up to obscure his face.

“Ready to get this show on the road?” Pidge demanded, holding the heavy oak door open wide.  “We’re borrowing a wagon so we have to hurry.”

Keith was the first to exit, and Lance followed, but he noticed Hunk lingering behind.  The seadweller shifted nervously, before he pulled the selkie close.  Hunk  kissed Shay on the cheek quickly, before releasing the stunned girl and waving, “For good luck!”

She flushed heavily and waved, her other hand coming up to her cheek.

_ You smooth flirt _ , Lance thought gleefully.

Pidge sat at the reins of their covered wagon, and had the rest of them pile in the back.  The strange landhorse tethered to the wagon was fidgety, and once they all piled in, Pidge snapped the reins and they were off.

Matt cleared his throat and unrolled a map of the castle on the floor of the wagon, speaking softly, “Just like we decided yesterday, we’re going to take the wagon as far as we can.  Then we enter the dungeons through the back door, I’ll guide you through them to Shiro, while Pidge and I split off to find our father.  Then we regroup back at the wagon, carry us all to the beach, and hopefully we all escape home free into the ocean.”

“And if the guards catch us?” Hunk shuddered.

“We have weapons,” Matt said, “Keith can use his singing voice, and I’ll give Lance a bow so he can use his spine-arrows.”

“What about me?” Hunk asked.

“Best if you hide, honestly.  You’re our getaway driver, so you’ll stay here with the wagon,” Matt smiled gently, “Sorry Hunk, but if the seawitch really stole your strength, then you should stay here, where it's safe.”

Hunk sighed, slumping, “I don't like feeling useless.” 

Lance gave him a look.  Ha!  What he’d give to be able to complain about his situation.

* * *

"This is the backside of the palace?" Keith asked, trailing his fingertips along the old cobblestone.  The crawling plants along the side looked odd to Lance, like skinny kelp, and they coated so much of the palace that he could barely tell that it had once been magnificent.   
  
"More or less," Pidge stated, adjusting their glasses.  "Who has the key?"   
  
Lance pulled the rusted piece of metal out of his pocket.  The key sat heavy in his palm, and everyone stared at it while they wondered who would be the one to unlock the door.   
  
Keith took the key, staring at all of them, "I don't want to wait any longer."   
  
The key fit into the heavy iron lock, clicked open, and finally the door swung open, the air escaping in a large gust of air and dust and musk.  The darkness beyond seemed almost threatening, but Lance didn't let it bother him.  He could handle darkness; he was used to it.   
  
He let Keith lead the way, but he stuck on his mate's tail as they made their way inside.  The corridor was wide, the walls stone and thick, and Matt took to the front.   
  
"I remember some of this," Matt whispered, "It's this way..."   
  
Pidge took the back of their little group.  They trudged single file, their feet kicking up the layers on untouched spider webs and thick dust.   
  
When they came across a passageway downwards, Matt motioned with his fingers and started to creep downwards into the cold drafty air.   
  
Keith's footsteps were a bit louder than Lance would've liked, but they couldn't do anything to fix that—not when he couldn't hear how loud his footsteps even were.   
  
Matt chose each turn they took, until they reached somewhere that had tiny torches spaced down the hallway, little yellow lights in the dark.   
  
They continued, backs pressed up against the wall and taking tiny footsteps, their breathing stifled.  Even Keith, whose world was silent, monitored his breath and his steps.   
  
The corridor opened up into three passageways, and Matt closed his eyes, his shallow breaths slowing into deeper, fuller ones.   
  
"This way," he whispered, motioning with his fingers for Keith.  They all crept down the hallway, and Lance caught the scent of salt and sickness, sour in the air.

He coughed, feeling sick; he couldn’t handle more than one or two breaths before he had no choice but to cover his nose.  The siren following in his footsteps pulled up short before they crashed together, his whole face curling in on itself in disgust.

“I can smell salt and sickness,” Keith hissed, his violet eyes darting down the dark corridor like that would make it any clearer to their dull human eyes.

“Which means we’re going the right way,” Matt whispered back, his eyes flashing an alarming acid green.   
  
The further they walked, the stronger the scent got, and even though the water was stale and the air was filled with the scent of blood, something about it called to Lance as the scent of home.  There were seadwellers in these underground tunnels, and if they were lucky, Shiro was one of them.   
  
Keith's hand grabbed onto Lance's and squeezed, hard, his nails digging in rough to Lance's skin.  He squeezed back, trying to comfort.  If the scent of blood in the air made Lance’s stomach turn, he couldn’t imagine what his mate would be going through; what kind of fear would he be feeling, what kind of dread, knowing that that blood could be his uncle’s?

Lance worried his lip.  Soon they'd come across Keith's uncle, and for all their sakes, he hoped that he wasn't hungry—or injured. But the scent of blood wasn't terribly convincing on either of those two points.

The tunnel they were walking opened up into a wider entrance, and a heavy wooden door, half rotting off its hinges, blocked their way. 

Matt made a choked sound.  “I recognize this.  We’re about to enter.   
  
Matt opened the door first, leading into a giant room, the walls covered in slick rock and mold.  A giant rock pool was sunk into the ground, filled with stale seawater.   
  
Lance kept back from the edge, but Keith ran right up to it, standing next to Matt and staring down into the brackish water.   
  
Matt turned back, smiling, "Looks like him.  He's asleep, though—"   
  
Pale fingers wrapped around Matt's ankle, black nails immediately digging in and drawing blood, and the Holt brother was unceremoniously dragged into the water against his will, abruptly enough that the last thing Lance saw of him before he sunk deep under the surface was the echo of a surprised smile.   
  
"Matt!" Pidge whispered.   
  
Lance dragged Keith back from the edge, waiting and holding his breath.   
  
Eventually he crept closer, back towards the edge.  He could just barely make out Matt's words.   
"Shh... " Matt tried to say, but a large bubble of air escaped his lips and he choked, much like Lance or Keith would if they tried to go underneath water right now.   
  
Shiro roared in rage and the sound of it echoed throughout the cavern.  His claws dug into Matt's ankle deep enough to spill his blood.  Matt choked, struggling, his face turning pale as his cheeks puffed out.   
  
Pidge screeched, about to dive in, but Keith caught them around the waist and dragged them back.  "He can breathe underwater, right?" Keith snapped, "Shiro won't attack him right now, even if he's feral—he's just scared!  If you jump in too, he will try to kill you both.  That's his territory and he doesn't feel safe—he's trying to figure out if Matt is a threat and he won't think Matt is safe if you jump in—he’ll see it as you two ganging up on him."   
  
Pidge shoved him off, angry, but they listened.   
  
Lance hated to have to just sit back and watch, even more so that it was Shiro down there, who would hopefully be his future friend and Keith's only living family.  And if he was completely gone, mentally, enough to hurt or kill Matt, who Lance did consider a fast friend, then there was no hope to save him.   
  
But what would they even do if he was?  They couldn't just leave Shiro here.

Finally, Matt reached out, cautious fingers with fine webbing stretched between them, and his gills flared open, breathing in the water around him.  His eyes were twice as green as before, their hazel faded to an electric color, and something in Shiro seemed to react.  He reached out too, placing his hand on Matt’s, his silver eyes widening.

"You're Shiro, right?" The Merkin said quietly.

Shiro hissed, jerking back, his claws extended and his fins flared aggressively, "How do you know my name?"   
  
"Because your family is here to rescue you," Matt begged, trying to pry his ankle loose from the siren's grip.  "Your nephew, Keith, he's here."   
  
"No!" Shiro roared, panic filling his silver eyes.  "No!  You  _ lie _ —he’s safe, I made sure he was safe!”

"He's not captured!" Matt begged, holding his hands up in surrender, “I promise he’s safe.  He’s here to save you!”

“I belong here!” Shiro snarled.  “This cage is to keep the beast inside, to keep the world safe from me!”

Lance felt Keith’s sob like a shot to the heart.  Keith clutched at his ears, helpless, tears dripping down his cheeks as his voice broke.  He had never sounded as miserable as when he croaked, “ _ What are they saying? _ ”

Lance shuffled closer, trying to feel the comfort of Keith’s body warmth against him.  He rubbed his back, his hand tracing his mate’s spine, even as he didn't take his eyes or ears off of Shiro and Matt, locked together in a murky pool and a dangerous dance.

Shiro snarled, jerking back, “I've killed so many.  You were the  _ only one _ to escape me—”

“Because you let me go!  Shiro, you aren't a monster.  You were trapped, forced to do this,” Matt reached out, the fear fading from his acid green eyes.

“Was I forced to kill to eat?  Every time, they showed me a friend of mine, someone I tried to talk to out in the ocean, and then they waited…” Shiro flashed his second row of teeth, long and sharp and vicious.  “...until I could think of nothing else but my hunger, and I had no other thought in my head but to  _ kill _ .  The pleas of my friends held no sway.  Any real, moral seadweller would've stopped, would've helped them instead, but I’m a slave to my hunger!”

Matt tugged Shiro into his arms, squeezing him tight.  “You aren't.  You are stronger than that, you are.  If you weren't, then I would be dead too.”

Shiro was frozen in his embrace, his tail flickering back and forth nervously.  “You almost were, back then!”

“And now?” Matt pulled in Shiro’s head against his neck, where his scent would be strongest.  “Why haven't you tried to hurt me now?”

Shiro inhaled, his gills fluttering open as his eyes slipped shut.  “You’re like me.  You were always just like me.”

“Yes.  I was a victim too, just like you are now.  That you’re still here, Shiro, that's because you’re strong, and everything you did was because they tortured you.  Just like they tortured me,” Matt released him, smiling gently as Shiro’s eyes opened—silver meeting green.  “Let me get Keith so he can talk to you.  We’re here to save you, we all just want to help you get better.”

“No!  Keep him out of here, I’ll hurt him and I can't—I can't hurt Keith!  Leave!  Leave me alone!” The siren shrieked, his eyes widening in terror once again. “I can't—I’m not ready yet.  I’ll go with you but I can't—”

Keith grabbed Lance’s wrist, crushing his bones together painfully.  “Lance, what’s happening?!”

Lance shook his head.  They didn't have any paper for him to write anything down on.  Keith just had to wait.

Keith wasn't good at waiting.

“Shiro!” Keith stuck his head underwater and screamed, “Shiro!!”

The koi-patterned siren’s attention snapped to Keith’s wet face, his hair dripping with the murky stale water and his human shape ensconced in fabric.

“Keith, no!” Shiro whimpered, his brows furrowing, terror seizing his features as he sunk further into the water, almost out of eyesight.

Lance was glad that Keith couldn't hear his uncle reject him so obviously.

“It’s just Keith,” Matt soothed, “Your nephew Keith.  You’d never hurt him.  You know that.”

“Shiro!” Keith yelled, coughing as water sunk into his nose and mouth.  Lance kept a hold on his shirt, tugging back to keep him from falling in.

“Where’s his tail?  Did the galra experiment on him too?!” Shiro trembled, clinging to Matt deep underwater.

“He turned himself human for a while to save you—and he’s temporarily deaf right now—it's a long story,” Matt pulled them both up with a kick of his feet.  “Come on, Shiro.  It's been a long time, right?”

Lance didn't need to know the specifics to know that it had felt like an eternity to both Keith and Shiro.  The way the sirens looked at one another, like they scarcely could believe each other was real, was evidence enough.

Keith reached out, his fingers all that sunk below the waves, and he opened his mouth to sing.  The notes warbled out his throat, soft and soothing like whalesong, each consonant of the nonsensical melody like the crashing of waves.  Lance had never heard a more beautiful sound, and his whole body responded, needing to get just a little bit closer to Keith.

Shiro swum towards the surface of his pool, reaching out a little with his fingers.  Like he was in a dream.  Hypnotized, Lance thought, and even though they weren't the ones being targeted by Keith’s song, Matt, Pidge, and he all swayed closer too.

As Shiro took Keith’s hand, Keith grabbed his wrist, pulling him up out of the water with all his might.  As Shiro breached, Keith cut off his singing in exchange for asking for help, his own body trembling with the weight of a full grown siren.  Lance grabbed Shiro’s waist on one end, Matt pushed him up from underneath, and Pidge grabbed his other wrist, and together they all helped haul him up.  The siren wrapped his tail around his nephew, soaking him to the bone and holding him tight once he was finally fully out of the water.

Keith promptly sat down under the weight, but his arms were tight around Shiro’s bare back, his nose nestled in with Shiro’s closing gills on his neck,

“You should leave me, you have to get to safety, please,” Shiro chanted, but he didn't let go.

Keith hugged him back tighter and cried into Shiro’s neck, “I missed you so much, I missed you—”

Lance bit his lip, giving them both some space while he helped Pidge pull Matt back out of the water.

Matt shook himself off, laughing, “I almost peed myself when he first yanked me in!”

Pidge punched him, “You made me so fucking worried!”

“I promise I’m alright,” Matt rubbed at his ankle.  The scratches there had broke skin, but weren't very deep.  They likely wouldn't even need bandaging.

“Them we’re wasting time.  We have to find our father,” Pidge said, eyes narrowing as they immediately went back to business.  “We’ll split up here—You two carry Shiro back to the wagon.  If we’re not back soon, then don't bother looking for us.  If the sun starts to set or you see Zarkon’s troops, then leave without us.”

“It's too dangerous…” Shiro pleaded, looking up from Keith’s unruly hair, his claws trying to detangle the mess.  “Zarkon guards those prisoners much more carefully.”

Lance nodded.  They wouldn't leave Matt and Pidge behind now, that was lunacy.

“No, we  _ have  _ to split up.  If there's any hope for our dad…” Matt said, his eyes downcast. “...then Shiro will just weigh us down.”

“Wait,” Shiro croaked, reaching his hand out to Matt, “If I can't go with you, I can at least give you something to make your journey safer.”

Matt made a questioning noise.

Shiro smoothed his hand down his tail until he reached his vagina, opening up his genital slit and pulling out a jewel, attached to a chain.

Matt made a face, but Lance recognized it immediately for what it was; one of Allura’s magic charms.  Looking at the rust on the chain, Shiro must’ve had it hidden away there for years.

“This is a charm from someone near and dear to me,” Shiro whispered, “Her magic will protect your loved ones like it protected Keith for me.  Your sibling and your father will live if you carry that on you.”

Matt grabbed it, his mouth twisting into a hesitant smile even as he carefully hung it over his neck. “Thank you.”

Shiro winced, “Sorry for storing it there, but there's nowhere else on me that they wouldn’t have found it.  I couldn't risk them taking it from me.  It's all I had with me.”

“Inventive,” Matt joked, “But, if it means so much, are you sure…?”

Shiro leaned in, tugging Matt to him and kissing him, gentle and like the other was something precious. His clawed fingers curled around Matt’s cheeks, his silver eyes gleaming.  “You brought back light into me.  I would repay my debt to you with anything.  If it kept your loved ones safe, I’d part with anything.”

Keith made a scandalized choking noise, “Shiro?  Why the fuck did you—”

Lance squeezed his shoulder, hushing him.

“I want my goddamn hearing back,” Keith griped instead.  “So I understand what the fuck just happened.”

Shiro smiled sheepishly, looking back at his nephew, “I can't even describe how much I missed you, Keith.  Even when you’re being bratty.”

Keith huffed, “Blah blah blah, your words mean nothing to me since I can't  _ hear  _ them!”

“Some things never change,” Shiro said, turning back to Matt for a brief moment, his eyes lingering.  “But you have to hurry then.  Do you have a plan?”

They sort of still did from before; Keith would clearly take Shiro, making him invisible with Allura’s charm.  Matt and Pidge would split off and find their father.  Lance was supposed to accompany Keith, but… but the plan wasn’t really optimal anymore.

Instead, Lance decided he should go with Pidge and Matt.  They had no weapons on them—his spines were all they had.  Keith had his singing, and so did Shiro.  The two sirens were experienced killers, even if one was beached and the other was human.  Lance had to trust they’d survive; especially since Shiro was going to be invisible.

With that decided, Lance pressed a kiss to Keith’s lips, trying to ignore the iron glare Shiro dug into his back.  He traced the words, ‘love you’ into the palm of Keith’s hand and prayed to Poseidon that he understood.

“Me too,” Keith whispered back.  “You have to come back safe, Lance.”

Lance nodded, but his body didn't want to move, mission ahead or not.

“Lance!” Pidge snapped, “We’re heading out!”

However they didn't get past the door.

A long white haired man stood there, his arms crossed over his cottage cheese colored skin and a sword in his meaty fist.  His limbs were long, spider-like, and his teeth seemed sharp like needles.

“I was told we’d be having guests,” he sneered, his lips curling up into an evil grin.  From behind him stood a whole battalion of guards, all armed to the teeth, and the man himself brandished his sword expertly.  He laughed at their dumbstruck faces, his yellow eyes sick with pleasure.  “Your friend Rax was so kind as to tell me of the little group betraying our empire.”

Oh no.

“He put up quite a struggle, but we managed to get your get-away driver as well,” The man gloated, stepping aside to reveal Hunk’s unconscious body, chained up and battered on the cave’s slick floor.  “And now it’s your turn.  Once I’ve got you all, I’ll turn you all in to face my father.  Emperor Zarkon will be most pleased to expand his collection of curiosities.”

_ Shit _ .


	9. Chapter 9

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

Keith swatted at the source of his annoyance, wiggling.  Who was dropping sand on his face?  Cold sand, at that?

Drip.

Seriously.  His head hurt.  He just wanted to sleep a  little longer.

Drip.

Ugh.  Not one to give up easy, huh?  They’d get bored of their stupid prank sooner or later.  Plaxum liked to prank him like that and he always hated her easy-going attitude.

Drip. _Drip._   **_Drip._ **

Keith awoke with a roar, “Stop!”

His eyes were crusty, dry, and the dripping hadn’t been sand.  No, it had been water.  He wasn’t underwater right now, he was above the waves, and his skin felt too dry, to small for him.  His legs were weak, and he raised a hand up to his neck, where he felt blood encrusted slits beginning to reform.

He was going to turn back into a siren trapped above the waves, in some kind of jail cell.

His memories rushed back, and he gasped out, “Lance?”

His hearing was incredibly faint, but it was beginning to return, and even though everything was hollow sounding, like he was listening to everything through a sponge or some kind of tube, he could hear his own voice.

No one responded, not that he could hear, but he called out again, louder, “Lance!”

No reply.

Keith stood up on wobbly feet, checking the door.  Solid iron, but rust.  If he had his claws… well, if his gills were coming back, then maybe his claws were too?

He took a deep breath, and tensed his hand, trying to push out the sharp nails from they hid underneath his fingerbed.  To his relief, they pushed out, sluggish and with a hiss of pain as they cut his own skin, but the tender claws emerged nonetheless.  Keith grinned, shoving them out from his other hand as well, before slashing straight through the metal bars.

The metal clanged loudly, crumpling as Keith sliced through it, slashing a hole and kicking out to push the bars out of his way.

He made himself a little makeshift door, stepping out and glancing around carefully.  He didn't hear anyone reply, but that didn’t mean much when he could barely hear himself.  Keith walked down the corridor, eyes searching out signs of life or familiar passage ways.  If he could find Lance and Hunk, Pidge or Matt even, then he could regroup.  Shiro was likely back exactly where they had just rescued him, perhaps under heavier guard, so Keith had little hope of finding him.

Keith kept his breaths steady, even as his threat itchEd to death.  His legs felt weaker all the time, and part of him knew that soon he’d have to sit and just let the transformation take over, but Keith was determined to last at least until he found Lance again.

No one was touching his mate—not until he drew his last breath.

* * *

Lance had escaped Lotor’s guard when he’d knocked out the rest of their entourage, but he spent the rest of the evening climbing, trying to find a good vantage point.

Eventually he did find a decent enough place.  He tucked himself away in a half crumbling wall, up near the rafters, and fitted his bow with one of his spines.  He exhaled, and waited.

“...Lance?”

Lance’s heart thumped.  Keith.  Keith was calling for him.  He should… no.  He had to stay where he was and keep anyone from getting close to his friends.  He couldn't give away his location—especially since Keith couldn't even hear him.

“Lance!”

Oh.  Lance hurt.  Resisting the call of his mate like this was the most difficult thing he’d ever done.

Lance inhaled soft, watching and waiting.  He’d watched the guard rotations and he knew someone would come to quiet Keith soon enough.  And when the black cloaked Druid stalked after Keith, Lance took careful aim.

The dried out fin that tipped his spine brushed against his cheek as he released the make shift arrow, watching in satisfaction as the Druid fell forward with one blow to the neck and with poison flooding their system.  Keith turned around at the thud, and he stared at Lance’s arrow, his dark eyes searching aimlessly for Lance.

Lance hoped the arrow would be enough to reassure Keith of his continued wellbeing, and for the moment, it seemed to do.

Keith slit the druid’s throat with his claws and used the blood on his fingertips to draw out an arrow, leading down the west corridor from where they were tucked away.  It was to that direction that Keith went, and Lance sighed, dropping down from his rafters and following as quietly as he could, keeping at a distance close enough to watch his mate’s back, but far enough away that he wasn't detected.

It seemed that Keith was now looking for the others, instead of him, and Lance almost wanted to run up and tell him where the guards had taken Pidge—they’d separated Keith and Pidge from Matt and Shiro, and Lance had followed his mate rather than they—but he held himself back.  He couldn't protect Keith standing right by his side.  Especially not while his legs were weak and his spine felt like it was trying to push its way out of his back.

While they couldn't communicate, Lance could do far more to keep Keith safe from where he was.

Keith didn't head back towards Pidge; he headed towards where Shiro’s pool had been.  He must've been following the scent—the same scent that Lance couldn't really detect anymore, muddied with blood and fear.  Sirens always did have better noses—good for finding prey by the scent of their blood alone.

The first pool they found was empty, but the next they came across held the floating corpse of an older merman, his bloated body not yet decaying.  He hadn't been dead for long.

Keith resolutely kept on walking, but Lance paused to pay his respects.  He might not have ever known the merman, but no one deserved to die like this, especially not one of his own.  A still hopeful part of Lance wanted to think that this probably wasn't the Holts’ father, but realistically, there were few other options that came to his mind.

The third pool they found wasn't empty either, but it still wasn't Shiro.  In fact, this pool held Matthew Holt’s unconscious body, his legs having been replaced with an emerald green tail, with red adorning the sides like a salmon.

“Matt?” Keith called, slapping the surface of the water in his attempt to wake the merkin.

Lance felt his every heartbeat as Matt didn't respond.  If not for the fluttering of his gills, Lance would've pegged him as dead.

“It's no use. He’s out for good,” Keith mumbled.  “I need to find Pidge and Shiro.  And Hunk, too.  Lance, you need to stay here with Matt.  If I find anyone, I can guide them back here to you.”

Lance dropped down from the rocks he’d been perched on, his throat rasping as he instinctively said, “I won't leave you.”

Huh.  His voice was coming back.

“Please, Lance.  We're the only two with any means of self defense right now.  Shiro, Hunk, Matt, and Pidge need us.”

“We don't even know if your voice works, Keith…” Lance knew the logic, perhaps even better than Keith did.

“If I find Shiro, we’ll have two voices,” Keith pleaded.  “I don't care if it's stupid, Lance, I have to go help them.  And you have to stay here and be safe.”

Lance pulled Keith into his arms, kissing him once softly.  “You stay.  I’ll go.  Alright?  You’re right, we do have to split up, but until we know if your voice works, you stay here.  Until then, I’m the only one with a weapon.  Either I go find them alone, or we go together.”

Keith slumped against Lance’s shoulder, defeated by his own logic.  “I’ll stay here and try to wake Matt.  But I will come looking for you if you don't come back soon enough.”

“One hour, Keith.  Give me one hour.”

“One hour,” Keith reluctantly agreed.  Lance kissed him again, a promise, before having to let his mate go.

He'd rip this castle apart to get back to Keith if he had to.

But he was going to find everyone else first, so he had back up.  Lance headed back down the way they had come, heading first to find Pidge.  They had been jailed not too far from where Keith had been, and he knew the merkin would appreciate being let out of their cell.  Then, Hunk and Shiro.  

He could do this.  They had to be able to do this.  Even with time running short.

* * *

Keith didn't know how to swim as a human.  But he assumed that the clothes he was wearing were more of a detriment to swimming than a help, considering he never saw humans in the water wearing all this much.  He unlaced the dress and the breeches underneath, and then went for the tight vest covering up his chest.  Once he was back to being completely nude, he stuck a foot into the water of the pool and shuddered—it was unforgivingly cold.

Better to just dive in, he thought, and hope somehow that swimming wasn't much different from usual.

He'd never been so scared of water before in his life.

He let his whole body slip underneath, and the cold made his teeth chatter as he struggled to get back to the surface.  It was hard to maneuver in water like this.  He was so small, and it was hard to sink and even harder to float.

Keith sucked in a breath of musky air before trying to sink back in further, to find Matt.

Pain wracked his body, his legs spasming, but the shift in the water wasn't really waking up the merkin, unconscious at the bottom of the pool.

“Matt!” Keith tried to call, but bubbles escaped his mouth and water rushed in, trying to choke him.  He barely surfaced in time before black spots crept into his vision, the bizarre sensation of drowning occurring to him for the first time in his life.

Grasping the last bit of his stubborn determination, Keith sucked in a huge breath, held it in his lungs and cheeks, and dove down headfirst.

He grasped Matt, just barely, the familiar sensation of scales under his fingertips, and he shook the tail he had grabbed hard, enough to bang Matt’s head lightly against the back of the cave wall.

Matt’s eyes slid open, and Keith remembered opening his mouth, trying to speak, but all the air escaped his lungs as a spasm of pain seized his body, so intense that he blacked out, water suffocating him all around.

* * *

Lance found Hunk before he found Shiro or Pidge, which was strange, because he had been heading towards Pidge.  But who would be disappointed in finding Hunk?  The guy was made of sunshine, and Lance was worried enough about Keith that a little extra sunshine never went wrong.

It was a relief to see him safe and unharmed, besides a hard knock to his head.

“They snuck up on me,” Hunk explained.  “And at first I just saw Rax, so my guard was down.  But then the soldiers grabbed me by my arms and dragged me out of the wagon, and I'm pretty sure they brained me with a tree branch.  Kind of unprepared for me struggling, I think?”

Lance squeezed him close in a hug.  “I’m really glad you’re okay, buddy.”

“I'm glad you can talk now,” Hunk agreed, “You were really unhappy being stuck in silence.  Can Keith hear now?”

“Not well, but yeah.  I think we’re running out of time,” Lance frowned, “So we have to find Pidge and Shiro like, now.”

“I’m with you, Lance,” Hunk stood up, flexing his fists.  “I think my strength is coming back too.”

Hunk wound back his fist, then punched forward so fast the air whistled and the metal bars of his cell shattered.  “Yep, definitely getting my strength back.  Let's hurry.”

And like clockwork, they found Pidge next.

The merkin was curled up in such a small ball that Lance had walked right past them, but Hunk spotted them and soon enough, two became three.

"Now we just need to find Shiro!" Lance said, hope finally creeping back into his heart.

"Yeah," Pidge agreed, shaking off the dust from their cloak.  "And Keith and Matt, and my father."

"I know where Keith and Matt are," Lance said, pointed back down the hallway where they came, "But Pidge... your father, he's... he's dead.  We found the corpse of a merman, older, with a green and red tail just like Matt's."

Hunk bowed his head, "Oh Triton.  Pidge, I'm so sorry..."

Pidge shook in fury.  " _Don't._  Don't pity me.  Just know I'm going to kill the man who did this to my family.  He's going to regret the day he ever looked into the eyes of a Holt."

Lance put a gentle hand on their shoulder.  "And I'll help you.  But we need to find Shiro so we can get back to your brother and my mate."

That seemed to placate them for now, but the look in their eyes was dangerous.  They really were out for blood, and Lance could only hope they kept a cool head when they were trying to escape.  There was too much at stake here to try to kill Zarkon now.

The three of them set off in the vague direction that Lance remembered the soldiers taking Shiro.  He had to force himself not to go down the path that would lead him back to Keith.  He'd promised an hour to find Shiro, and while he couldn't tell exactly how long it had been, he wasn't going to give up now, not when he was so close.  Instead, Lance led them down the path Keith hadn't taken earlier, which led them into another room with a series of pools.

Most of them were empty or contained corpses, but the rare few contained merfolk so tortured they barely looked alive.  One of them hissed at him when he reached out, wondering if he should try to save them too.  How could he leave anyone here, in the hands of a psychopath?

But the pain and wobbliness he felt in his legs reminded him that he was on a time limit, and he wasn't going to return to his mate without Shiro in tow.

"I don't know about you, Lance," Hunk started off with, "But I feel really dizzy.  I think we're going to have to sit down and let the change happen soon."

"So we hurry the fuck up.  At least you have legs, mantis shrimp!  I'm going to be a sleeping anemone--"

"A sitting duck," Pidge interjected, "It's a sitting duck.  The phrase you were using, it's... never mind."

In order to get his mind off of such rough waters, Lance laughed, "What?  No way.  It's a sleeping anemone.  They don't move.  Ever."

"No, that makes no sense.  Anemones never move," Pidge argued.  They seemed to be using the argument as just as much of a distraction as Lance was.

Hunk finally said, "A stationary clam.  It's supposed to be a stationary clam!  Because clams can swim too.  They're right, Lance, you were saying it wrong."

Lance groaned, "Can I go back to not talking again?  That way you two can't gang up on me!"

The three of them were so distracted by their little argument that Lance managed to walk straight into a pool of water, splashing right in with a shriek as his body was enveloped with cold, unfriendly water.  His eyes slammed shut, but he peeked them open again as he noticed his gills fluttering and that he could breathe, despite his discomfort with the temperature.

"It's nice of you to drop in," Shiro joked.

"Uh."

"Yeah, you walked right into that one," Shiro said, shrugging his broad shoulders.  "Come to rescue me again?"

"I am if you agree to stop making puns," Lance said, still slightly flabberghasted.

It was about then, however, that a piercing scream sounded throughout the caves.

Lance immediately recognized it as Keith's voice.

Keith.

Keith was screaming, he was in danger, he needed help.

Shiro too looked back at him with wide eyes.  "Keith," he confirmed.

" _Fuck_ ," Lance said.

* * *

When Keith blinked his eyes open, trying to focus, he could barely understand what was happening...  Where was he?  Why did everything hurt?

His gills fluttered at the side of his neck.  Underwater then.  And he had gills?  Did that mean they’d waited too long?  That they were trapped now?

“Thank God you’re awake,” he heard someone say.

Keith tried to see better where he was, but it was so dark, and everything hurt so bad.  He looked down.  He still had legs, but he couldn't move them at all.  They were stiff and in excruciating pain.

In front of him was Matt’s worried face, his eyes wide and borderline panicked.

“You woke me up just as you started to drown.  We’re lucky your gills split open in time; you almost died,” Matt worried.  “Can you move at all?”

“Not right now,” Keith said, his voice croaking.

“Not good.  Not good at all,” Matt fretted, “Come here, I’ll try to hide you behind me.  Zarkon and Lotor are looking for you.  I barely managed to hide you the first time, and that was just because they didn't really try to look inside the pool—I just hide your clothes from them.”

“Matt, I can't move my legs,” Keith jerked his arms, trying to grab onto Matt and failing to manage it.

Matt pulled him in close, wrapping him in his tail.  “It's gonna be alright.  When you’re back to being a mermaid, you’ll be able to move again.  I'll hide you until the others find us.”

Keith corrected, “Siren.  Not a mermaid.”

“A person with a tail, alright?” Matt rolled his eyes, “I don't really care for specifics right now.”

Keith hugged Matt’s cold, clammy skin and enjoyed for a brief moment the comfortable scent of a merman.  Yes, he was hugging his usual breakfast, but it felt like home, and that was relief in and of itself.

“Lance was supposed to be back in an hour…” Keith whispered.  Had it been an hour?

“Lotor and Zarkon are the only ones who’ve stopped by.”

“Fuck,” Keith swore.

Matt smiled sheepishly, “Well, it could be worse.  He could be trapped in here with us?”

“You’re terrible at comforting,” Keith snorted a laugh.  “You’re almost as bad as me.  Wow.  No wonder Shiro took a shine to you.”

“Whatever,” Matt sniffed, his cheeks turning pink, "So what's the plan?  Even once your tail grows back, we'll just be stuck as two mermaids with no legs."

He huffed a gush of water out his gills.  "I have no clue.  I just hope... I just hope Lance and the others are alright.  The man who attacked us, he might still be out there."

"Lotor," the merkin corrected.  "His name is Lotor, and he's the prince.  He's got a curse laid on him or something; his mother was apparently a Nereid, but he sure doesn't look it...  His father has always had a thing for the bizarre.  Even when it comes to sleeping with his... collection?  I don't what I can even say.  It's sick to think about."

They heard footsteps up above them, and Matt whispered, "Speak of the devil..."

Keith blinked back, confused but silent as Matt pushed him up against the cave wall with his tail.

Two figures leaned over the pool, one of them the man with the white hair--Lotor-- and the other with black hair and a scarred face, a wider build, and the coldest eyes that Keith had ever looked into.  He'd seen all kinds of unfathomable things but nothing had ever seemed more evil than this man that had tortured his uncle for years just because he liked having a cabinet of _curiosities,_ like they weren't even real people, like they didn't have real feelings.  Keith had never wanted to rip out anyone's innards more than this man.

"Don't move," Matt warned him, staring up with the same hateful glare that Keith knew was on his own face.

The white haired man laughed, and Keith struggled to hear him.  He was saying something.  "...you think it turned out... looking like that, father... the experiment has left him permanently... and there should be no more issues with... of course, escape will quickly become... for them all."

"What's he saying?" Keith whispered.

Matt was pale-faced as he replied, "He said that... that what they did to me, making me lose my legs... it's permanent.  I can't even breathe above water anymore.  Escaping here for me is... it's impossible.  That's what he's saying."

How was he even supposed to respond to that?  Keith didn't know how to comfort anyone, escape with such dire news.  Instead, he laid his hand on Matt's, and insisted, "Get me up there.  Get me above the water."

"Are you sure?" Matt asked.

"I need to try," Keith said, and tried to push himself up by using a hold on the wall.  "Matt, _now_."

Matt nodded, and used his green and red salmon's tail to push Keith up to the surface.

Lotor and Zarkon jerked at his sudden appearance, and before either one of them could speak, Keith opened his mouth.

And _screamed_.

Screamed, because he was no good at singing, and how high and how loud he could get would influence how well he could hypnotize either of them.  He screamed until his lungs ran out of air, until his throat burned.

And the longer he screamed, the glassier Lotor's eyes grew, until he was entirely under Keith's sway.  Zarkon had covered his ears, but was otherwise unaffected.  Lotor though, he could barely stand under the reverberating pitch.  Keith screamed louder, because he didn't care how loud he needed to be, he was going to bring both of these monsters under his control.

Zarkon smiled, like it was funny that Keith's voice didn't work on him.

Keith didn't need Zarkon to drown himself.  There were other ways to kill a man.

"Lotor," Keith rasped, his voice wrecked, " _Kill your father._ "

The prince drew his sword.

The emperor laughed.  "You think my boy can kill me?  You think such a simple trick will help save you and your friends?  No, child."

Keith didn't reply to the taunts, commanding again, " _Kill your father_."

And Lotor lunged forward, his sword drawn.

 

 


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this chapter took so long to upload! I had most of it written, but I was sitting on it for so long because I just didn't like it. So instead I'll just post it, and hope you forgive me for the poor writing at the end! I promise the next chapter won't have such a wait, or such awful quality.

Sword met flesh, puncturing it, piercing a vicious hole, the same time that silence met the air.

Lotor withdrew his sword from his father’s heart, seemingly unfazed by his father’s body falling over dead.  He didn’t speak.

Keith trembled, his voice completely gone.  He rasped, but if he was managing to make a sound, then his hearing was still too damaged to catch it.  Matt was managing to hold him up, but Keith could feel the merkin’s shaking.  He couldn’t hold Keith for much longer.

Lotor wiped the blood off of his sword.  He turned to Keith, his yellow eyes looking sickly pleased in his skull.

“You killed him,” Lotor smiled, sheathing his sword.  “You actually killed my father.”

Keith gripped his throat, fear widening his eyes.

“This is marvelous,” Lotor whispered, grabbing Keith by his cheeks and pulling him closer.  Close enough to kiss, and Keith felt too weak, too in pain, to jerk himself back to safety.  He was in the prince’s clutches, and he didn’t have it in him to escape.  Everything hurt far, far too much.

“What kind of monster are you?” Matt coughed, covering up his gills as he spoke above water.  It briefly occurred to Keith that Matt had never had to worry about closing them or opening them.  He likely didn’t know how.  “You just killed your  _ father _ and you’re saying this is marvelous?!”

“Oh, but it is,” Lotor said, turning Keith’s face from side to side.  “Because now the heir to the throne must be crowned king.  And after so many years, dearest daddy Zarkon was losing his touch.  Just capturing you seadwellers and putting you all behind glass cages to stare at?  Pathetic…”

Keith weakly pushed at Lotor’s arms, but a seizure of pain shot up from his hips and he crumpled into a limp ball, scales erupting from his waist with bursts of blood.

“Your father was sick in the head,” Matt snapped, his arms around Keith’s waist and pulling at him, trying to free him from the prince’s grasp.

Lotor laughed, tossing Keith away and standing back up.  He dusted off his trousers without pause.  “Of course he was.  Too obsessed with one day finding the very princess he cursed to never leave the water, he lost sight of what he really should’ve done.  Why search the ocean forever for some girl who’s more than likely dead when he could enslave all of you, and become king of both land and sea?”

“You can’t even breathe underwater!” Matt said, even as he rushed over to catch Keith’s limp form.  The blood around him blossomed dark in the water, and Keith mildly wondered, in such a stagnant small pool as this, if he’d end up breathing in his own blood.  Matt certainly was.  Keith could do nothing more than pat his shoulder in thanks, and silently apologize for the nastiness they both were inhaling.  

“There’s no way you’ll ever be able to rule a place you can never be apart of!” Matt pointed out, holding onto Keith like a lifeline.

“On the contrary, sweet Matthew.  You are the central part of a larger project.  Is it possible to turn man into mer?  What about mer into man?  And we did manage it with you.  Unfortunately for you, unless you elect to stay here and be a good little test subject, you’ll be escaping with your friends and spending the rest of your life wanted for regicide,” Lotor laughed, even as Matt went limp with shock.  “Oh, you didn’t think I’d let you escape?  I will.  It’d look too suspicious that you killed my father in my presence, without any guards, and then were murdered without a trial.  I’m letting all of you go!  Isn’t that great news?”

Keith slipped from Matt’s arms, the merkin too shocked to continue holding him up.

“But don’t think you’ll ever be able to turn back into a human again.  Unless you choose to stay, in which case I’m sure with years of testing, the druids might find a way to turn you back.  If the tests don’t kill you first like they have with every other mer that we’ve captured.  Your father succumbed far too easily before he choked.”

Keith rasped, finding the last bit of his voice now he was underwater, “Matt….”

At that, the ginger turned to Keith, seeing him weakly reaching out, and Matt dove under, away from the prince and all the poison he was pouring from his mouth.

“Keith, I’m sorry!  I didn’t even realize I’d dropped you,” Matt said as he tugged Keith into his arms, holding him beneath the waves.

Keith tried to smile back at him, but it was too late.  Keith could barely hear, and his sight fogged up.  The pain was too intense, and he wouldn’t be able to stay awake much longer.

“Lance,” He reminded Matt, before closing his eyes and sinking further into darkness.

* * *

Lance pulled himself up and out of the pool without a second thought.  The scream still echoed and Lance needed to be with Keith right now, he needed it more than he cared about his own life.

Lance had started to run toward the sound of the scream, but Hunk snatched his arm up and pulled him back.  “Lance, we can’t!  Not yet!”

He crumpled, his legs failing to catch up with the sudden movement.  “Keith!  That was Keith, that was my  _ mate— _ I will lose my mind if you don't let me go to him!”

Lance struggled back to his feet, ignoring how his legs felt like fire.  He was running out of time to move above ground and he was going to die if he didn't get to Keith—something primal in him was screaming for his mate and knowing he was in danger terrified Lance so deeply he wasn't sure where he began and the terror ended.

“Lance, how are you even standing?!” Hunk protested, wobbling himself.  “I can barely stand and I  _ have  _ legs!”

“Keith needs me,” Lance snapped, trying to take a wobbling step forward.  What felt like boiling water ran through his veins every time he tried to put weight on his feet.

“Keith is strong,” Shiro said, his face schooling itself into a brave mask, “He can handle whatever he needs to handle on his own.  You need to stop pushing yourself too hard.”

Lance sobbed, his weight smashing into the side of the wall.  “I don't give a fuck about me—not when he’s hurt!”

Pidge grabbed Lance around the waist, hoisting him up.  “I’ll carry him.  We need to get back to Keith and Matt.  If you are going to transform back, then we want that to happen together, where Shiro, Matt, and I can guard you three.”

Hunk wobbled on his legs after them, barely able to carry Shiro.

They stumbled too easily down the hallways.  Nothing stopped them and there was no noise of guards or other footsteps besides their own.

When they did finally get back to the cave where Lance had left Keith with Matt, Lance almost panicked before he realized his lover must be underwater.

Lance stared down into the pool, looking at Keith’s pale naked body twisted up in Matt’s tail.  He growled, slipping into the water with them.  But the proximity didn't ease Lance’s nerves.

A stranger had his mate in their arms, hiding them from Lance’s view like a stolen prize.  And stolen, he was.  Keith was Lance’s, and when Lance was in as much pain as he was, he couldn't think beyond that.

“Get your fucking hands off of him,” Lance hissed, his fists forming claws and his teeth sharpening in his mouth as he said the words.

“...Lance?” The stranger said, and some bit of Lance, locked far back in his mind, supplied him with ‘Matt.’

Lance didn't care.  He grabbed the stranger’s wrist and ripped it off of Keith’s delicate form.

“Don't touch my mate, Matthew.”

Matt startled, but he didn't let go of Keith.  “Lance, there’s no time for that!  Keith is transforming back—he’s farther along than you, his scales are bursting through his skin and his legs are fusing together!”

Even more reason for the strange merman to take his fucking hands off of Lance’s mate before he used his claws to rip out his throat.

Hunk’s faint voice, from up above the pool, warbled oddly, “Matt, just drop Keith and back away.”

Matt hesitated.

“You heard Hunk.  Let go of him,” Lance snarled, his hands outstretched, his claws had never felt thirstier for blood.  His head was foggy, he was surprised he was still managing to speak.  At Matt’s fearful lack of reaction, Lance roared, “ _ Now! _ ”

Matt dropped Keith like he was an electric eel.  “I-I’m sorry, I was just trying to help…” He stammered as he swam back, clearly meaning to give them space.

Lance dove down, catching his mate before he settled to the pool’s bottom.  He rested Keith’s unconscious body on top of his, preventing him from laying on the harsh and uneven rock that now dug painfully into Lance’s back.

Keith’s limp body felt like it was burning up in his arms, and Matt was right in saying that his scales were working their way through his skin.  It was horrifying to watch, so instead Lance just kissed his mate softly, trilling at him as he rubbed a hand over Keith’s belly.  It was softening, shrinking, the eggs pushing downwards back into his slowly forming tail.

Lance didn’t have his own tail, didn’t know how to wrap his mate up properly with these useless legs.  He wanted to flare his fins out and bristle his spines and hiss at the stranger still too close by, but he couldn’t do any of those things. At the very least, Lance had his mate secure in his arms instead.  And soon, this would be happening to him also.

He tucked Keith’s head into the crook of his neck and did a cursory pass over of Keith’s gills.  His mate was breathing shallowly, but he was breathing.  

Keith was alright.  He would be alright.

Lance felt some of his brain come back from wherever adrenaline and fear had shoved it away, and made eye-contact with Matt, who frankly looked terrified to be stuck in the same bloody pool as the both of them.

“Sorry,” Lance admitted slowly, keeping Keith tucked in close, “I freaked after hearing him scream.  I needed to hold him.  I don’t know where my mind went.  Although I don't know how much longer it’ll be until I start losing it again… you might not want to be here for that.”

“I'm sorry I'm still in your space but,” Matt furrowed his brow but nodded, “I can't really exit the water right now.  Whatever they did to me… it won’t let me breathe air.  Do you mind if Pidge joins us in here?”

“Yes,” Lance snapped, still feeling raw and protective, wanting to keep everything far far away from his vulnerable mate.  Even their friends.

Keith jerked in his arms, and Lance looked down in time to see his fins slice through his flesh and jab out weakly from his half-legs half-tail bottom.  Blood clouded the water, and Lance shuddered, pressing a gentle kiss to Keith’s sticky hair.

Matt bit his bottom lip nervously, “I’ll wait then, okay?  We’ll all wait.”

Lance nodded, before staring down at his legs.  He needed to take his clothes off too.  Couldn't transform back if fabric kept his legs apart.  And he would forget about his own pain while Keith was hurt like this, he wouldn’t even notice.

He shed his pants first, holding Keith close with one hand and using the other to pull down the offending fabric.  Then he had to remove his shirt, vest, and jacket.  The quiver with his arrows was already gone, and it said something about how much pain he was in and how hurt Keith was that Lance had no idea where it’d gone.

He would have to put Keith down in order to finish undressing.  Lance gently situated Keith between rocks on the bottom on the pool, and then quickly ripped off his jacket, vest, and shirt in as few motions as he could manage.  He used their combined shed clothing to shield the both of them from Matt’s sight.  Tucked under the jacket, vest, shirt, trousers, and Keith’s heavy dress, they were as safe as they could get for the moment, and only then did Lance allow the pain to force his eyes closed as well.

He held Keith close, as close as he could, and suffered through the pain.  Every minute felt like hours, every breath like someone had ripped his sides wide open and slit his throat.  The only thing he could taste was blood.  Only when he felt his spines pierce through his skin all at once did Lance finally lose consciousness.

* * *

Lance woke slowly.  He felt stiff, his tail heavy like when the shark had bitten it and he was unable to swim for days.  A quick review of his arms confirmed that Keith was safely snug against him and Lance’s arms were keeping him there.  The overwhelming warmth of the siren’s body was comforting.

He cooed at his mate, gently brushing back his dark bangs, but Keith didn't stir.  He trilled, running his hand cautiously down Keith’s side, but the siren was unresponsive.  His mate was breathing, that much Lance could feel against his palm when he lingered near Keith’s gills, but each gush of water seemed almost labored, and his mate’s skin seemed hotter than it should be.  Keith always ran hot but… he felt sick.

Lance was probably overthinking this.  Keith was warm blooded.  Lance was just having to get used to being cold blooded again.  His mate would wake up any minute now.

Another odd shift in the water had Lance glancing up, only to see Matthew hovering as far away as he could.

“...Is everyone transformed back?” Lance realized slowly, checking over his tail and fins to confirm he was all there, completely back to normal.  Keith’s red scales also duly shone in the murky water.

“Hunk is a shrimp now, yeah.  But uh… what kind of fish even are you?” Matt asked, daring to come a little closer.

“A lionfish,” Lance said proudly, hoisting Keith up with one hand so he could twist and show off his spines.

“I've never seen a lion fish before… Pidge and I are from the north, there aren't any….” Matt stroked one of his spines, testing it for hardness and weight.  

Lance gasped, “Stop!  That tickles!”

Matt darted around to Keith, “What kind of fish is he?”

“...Uh,” Lance gave Keith’s beautiful fins a glance over.  “Good fucking question.  He’s a siren; mermaids don't really distinguish them by fin type.  Keith might be able to tell you himself?”

The salmon merkin shook Keith’s shoulder, but to no avail.  He looked back up at Lance, concern in his eyes, “We need to wake him.  I was talking to Pidge and Shiro while Hunk and you two transformed back, and we have an escape plan, but it involves Keith being awake and able to sing.”

“Then we’re going to need a new plan,” Lance said.

“Why don't we just wake him up?” Matt tried, “You woke up with a little nudging!”

“Matthew,” Lance growled, “Come up with a new plan.  If he’s not waking, then we need a plan B!”

“There is no plan B!  Stop thinking with your dick—we need to get out of here!  If that means slapping Keith hard enough to wake him, then we’re going to slap him in the face!”  Matt yelled, his hand reaching out for Keith’s shoulder.

Lance flared his fins and hissed, spines spread out like a threat.  “Don’t fucking touch him.”

“Then what?!  We leave you two behind?!”

_ “ No _ _!”_ Lance buried his head in Keith’s hair, his eyes burning, “He’s not responding to anything, Matt—we’re literally screaming in his ears and he’s not moving!  We don't even know if anything—if anything will wake him in time!”

Matt recoiled.  “Lance, _no_ , he’s gonna wake up.  He has to!”

Lance hisses, “Why do we need him awake so badly?!”

“His voice, to trick the guards—”

“What guards?!  They all left!  On the way over we didn't run into a single guard!”

“But if we do…”

“Shiro has a Triton-cursed voice too!” Lance snapped, holding Keith closer protectively.  “There's something seriously wrong with my mate!  His skin is… it’s too hot, he’s boiling!  He isn't responding, his shallow breathing is the only way I can tell he’s still alive!”

Matt stopped, realization dawning on him.  “We have to tell Shiro, he might know what to do—”

“None of us knows what to do!  We need to get him back to Allura!” Lance cut him off.  “Which means we need a new plan.”

“I'm going to tell the others,” Matt amended.

And Matt did, slowly and disjointedly, fill the rest of them in.

Hunk, glorious Hunk, ducked his head underwater and told Lance, “We adjusted our first plan a bit.  I’m going to sneak you out.  Four of us can't walk, so I’ll take two of you on my back, and two in my arms.  I’ll carry Keith and Matt, and Shiro and Lance will cling to my back.  Pidge will run ahead and find the wagon.”

“But I can't breathe above water!” Matt protested.

“Hold your breath,” Lance said, frustrated.

“I don't… I don't know how.”

Pidge called, “Found a bucket for Matt.  Just keep your head submerged in this!”

Matt frowned, “We’re going to look so stupid.”

“This is true,” Hunk laughed.  “Lance, I will carry Keith so gently, he’ll sleep this fever right off.  Please, pass him up to me?”

Lance sucked in a breath.  All of him was screaming no, even his brain, but he trusted Hunk.  Hunk had been his best friend for years.  If anyone could be trusted with Keith, it was Hunk.

Hunk slung one of Keith’s arms around his shoulders, scooping him out of the water gentle as can be.

Lance pushed himself up and out, before pulling himself up onto Hunk’s back.

“I’ve got him,” Hunk reassured, “Matt?  I’ll pick you up upside down, if you’d swim up a little…”

Matt presented himself tail up, and Hunk just slung him over his shoulder haphazardly, knocking the water out of Matt’s gills in the process.

Shiro was the last to climb on, and then their strange ride was all set to go.

“I've never been more glad for the super strength,” Hunk sighed.

“Thanks for the lift, Hunk.  I’ll be sure to tell Antonio exactly how great your legs are when we get back.  It’s time to ditch this joint,” Lance said.  Matt gurgled in agreement from his bucket.

That being said, it was a long walk back to their wagon, still waiting as if Hunk hadn’t been kidnapped right out of it.  It was an even longer ride back to the ocean, one spent with Lance holding Keith tightly as if his heart would beat out of his chest if Lance let him out of the cage of his arms.

He still wouldn’t wake.


	11. Chapter 11

Lance had never been more glad to see the ocean.

Hunk tossed Matt in first, literally throwing the Merkin into the water like a breaching whale. Shiro followed suit, chasing after the man before he got himself any more twisted up.  Lance came next, placed gently in the water with Keith still in his arms, and lastly came Pidge and Hunk themselves, Hunk shedding his shirt and Pidge the rest of their clothing.

Just as Hunk was about to corral them all towards the drop off, where the shallow beach turned back into safe, safe ocean, they heard a voice call after them.

“Wait!” Shay cried, sprinting onto the beach, her traitorous brother on her heels.  “Please wait!”

Lance wanted to swim away as fast as he could from Rax before he turned them all in again and likely got them captured or killed for the second time, but Hunk would never leave Shay unheard.  So they waited as Shay ran through the water still in her human form, her heavy clothes weighing her down even as she reached Hunk and threw her arms around him.

“Please, I can't ask this of you but I must–” she cried, even as Hunk wrapped his arms around the woman he loved and held her close, “Lotor knows Rax is involved with you.  The first thing he’ll do is to hunt him down and I can't bear to lose my brother. Please take him with you! We’ve always lived on land more than sea, he would die out there alone!”

Lance couldn't help himself from saying, “You want us to help him after he almost got us all killed?”

She sobbed, her strong arms tight around Hunk and her face buried in his neck, “I know it's too much to ask but you are my dearest friends and the only ones I can trust.  Please, oh gods–”

“I’ll take him,” Hunk agreed, his voice soft and gentle just for her.  “We’ll help him. You helped us so much, Shay, we want to return the favor.  But the laws of seadwellers say that if he betrays our trust, we kill him. Both of you need to know that if he wants to live among us.”

She hugged him tighter, a laugh on her full lips, “Thank you, thank you, thank you!  I promise if he does anything to hurt you or your community, I’ll swim down there myself and kill him for you.  We know the laws down there are harsh…” she looked to Rax for a brief moment, “but we both already agreed. It's more dangerous for him to stay here.  He only did what he thought would protect us and keep us hidden, but instead it almost revealed us both and got you all hurt. He understands now, I promise.”

Hunk reluctantly let Shay go, turning back to look at Rax.  “We don't like you, but we will help you. Come on, put on your pelt.  We need to get going.”

Rax nodded, “My sister insisted on this, but I don't think it's necessary.  Just know I’m not super fond of any of you either.”

Great, Lance thought.  Another tag along that didn't want to be there and had never been in the ocean for real before.  They already ran a risk with Keith being sick. If they all made it back in one piece, it'd be a miracle.

Shay placed one last, lingering kiss on Hunk’s cheek, and pulled away, heading back for shore.  Lance didn't miss the look Hunk shot her, pining and soft with love. Knowing how much Hunk had always been willing to give up for her, it hurt to watch them part like this.

Still Lance itched to get home, back under the waves, and he submerged both Keith and himself in the shallow warm waves.  Some part of him thought that the fresh water running through his mate’s gills would revive some of his spirit and wake him, but so far there had been no such luck.

Shiro swam over, hovering near Keith as his eyes asked all the questions Lance was demanding himself.  Instead of voicing any of them, the siren asked, “Can I carry him? It’s been so long… And you must be tired.”

Lance knew he should accept the offer, but he shook his head, cradling Keith closer, “Don’t.  I’m not… I’m--I’m not ready yet.”

“I understand,” Shiro said, backing off only a little bit.  “I… I understand.”

Hunk joined them with Rax, the last to leave the surface behind, and the mantis shrimp cut in, “I know a shortcut to Allura’s.  She’ll know how to help Keith more than any of us. And I don’t want to rush you, but Shay is right. The surface isn’t safe for any of us.  Maybe not for any seadweller, not for the foreseeable future.”

It was Matt who spoke up, his voice small as he said, “What have we done?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I originally posted this as an April fool's day chapter! But all of your comments were so sweet and funny I'll leave the teaser for next chapter up until I feel like I can come off of hiatus and post the real chapter 11, as a thank you. <3

**Author's Note:**

> If you haven't already seen it, please take a gander at [Elentori's (unrelated but still amazing) lion fish Lance!](https://twitter.com/Elentori/status/835581846234738689)  
> And Looveel's [gorgeous wip of Allura!](https://twitter.com/L0u_Yume/status/872483275683573760)  
> Seitenma's precious[hand holding merbeebs](http://allen2nella.tumblr.com/post/160756390897/seitenma-some-good-ol-merklance-based-on-an-au)  
> Forrestwyrm's [Siren Keith](https://forrestwyrm.tumblr.com/post/158977153451/merman-lance-and-siren-keith-inspired-by-this) [, ](https://forrestwyrm.tumblr.com/post/160126168901/forrestwyrm-more-art-for-this-fic-x-because)[character sketches,](https://forrestwyrm.tumblr.com/post/160461659421/forrestwyrm-finally-ive-done-it-all-the#notes) and Keith/Lance drawings!  
> [ Mer-Klance by Sh4d0wW4lk3r](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10657659)  
> My own artwork for DSS:  
> [References for species design](http://allen2nella.tumblr.com/post/159784638072/some-references-for-deep-sea-sinning-and-just)  
> [Siren Keith ](https://twitter.com/allen2nella/status/838276567235088386)  
> [ Illustrated scene from Ch. 2 ](https://twitter.com/allen2nella/status/851656469439070209)  
> [Assorted doodles](https://twitter.com/allen2nella/status/853904420253257729)  
>  
> 
> If you draw fanart for this fic, I humbly request you tell me. In this fandom especially, I don't want anyone to get in trouble with any of our less than savory fellows, and I'd like to have all your backs too, like you have mine. Thank you.


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